UNITED NATIONS: UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the food and fertilizer export deals brokered by the United Nations last year with Russia and Ukraine have played a significant role in supporting global food security and must be continued.
In a statement issued by his Deputy Spokesperson, the secretary-general reiterated “the importance of full and continued implementation” of the deals signed last July in Istanbul, known as the Black Sea Initiative. The deal was allowing Ukrainian grain and foodstuffs safe passage to world markets and the Memorandum of Understanding with Moscow over fertilizer exports.
Russia is still weighing up if it would continue to be a part of the deal, agreed with Ukraine and administered along with the UN and Turkiye, past a deadline of 17 July.
Last May, Moscow agreed to a 60-day extension, and the UN has been leading negotiations to ensure its continuation. Russia has said repeatedly during the lead-up to previous extension deadlines that it is not benefiting enough under the deal.
A Joint Coordination Centre in Istanbul with representatives from all stakeholders administered the deal, but recently, shipping movements have declined along with vessel inspections.
The UN chief’s statement maintained it was crucial to ensure that food and fertilizers from Ukraine and Russia can keep on heading to countries in need “smoothly, efficiently and at scale”.
He further said that these agreements were an all-too-rare demonstration of what the world could do when “it puts its mind to the great challenges of our time,”.
“Together, the agreements are contributing to sustained reductions in global food prices, which are now more than 23 percent below the record highs reached in March last year.”
UN Still Hopeful for Deals
Earlier on Friday, the Chief Economist UN Food and Agriculture Organization Maximo Torero stated that the initiative to allow the grain to leave Ukrainian ports had allowed the delivery of 32 million tonnes, much of it to meet the needs of developing nations, as well as food aid for the World Food Programme (WFP).
He was hopeful about the renewal of the deals, “We hope it will be renewed, and if not, then we would ill observe a spike in terms of the prices of cereal commodities.”
In a last week note, the UN said the agreements were “a lifeline for global food security” at a time when 258 million people face hunger in 58 countries.
Meanwhile, a senior U.N. official said that despite a discouraging response from Russia, the United Nations was continuing to press for an extension of the deal that could allow the safe export of grain from Ukraine via the Black Sea.
A parallel memorandum of understanding between Russia and the United Nations has sought to remove hurdles to the export of Russian grain and fertilizer. While food and fertilizer are not sanctioned by the West, efforts have been made to ease concerns of anxious banks, shippers, insurers and other private sector actors about doing business with Russia.
Since the grain deal was signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, nearly 33 million metric tons of grain and other foodstuffs have been exported to the world markets, helping to bring food prices down, which spiked at the start of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February last year.
The U.N. said last week that no new ships have been registered to transit the Black Sea since June 26 at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, which oversees the deal.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was in Turkiye on Friday, where he met with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan as both dignitaries discussed the grain deal, among other issues. Erdogan was instrumental in achieving the deal nearly a year ago.
Russia and Ukraine are criticizing each other for damage caused to a section of an ammonia pipeline last month in Ukraine’s Kharkiv region. The pipeline runs from the Russian city of Tolyatti to the Ukrainian port of Odesa.
