Guterres hopes proposals sent to Putin regarding grain deal will salvage it
NEW YORK. July 13 (Interfax) - UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres hopes that the proposals he sent Russian President Vladimir Putin concerning the Black Sea grain deal will help resolve the issue of its extension.
"We are committed to make sure that we have both the efforts to have the Black Sea Initiative extended and the efforts to guarantee the exports of Russian food and fertilizers being successful. It is in this context that I've sent a letter to President Putin with some concrete proposals that I hope can allow us to find a positive way forward [in resolving these issues]," Guterres told the press jointly with Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in Brussels on Thursday.
His spokesman Stephane Dujarric said Guterres wrote to the Russian president on July 11, proposing to preserve the deal.
"The secretary-general yesterday sent a letter to the president of the Russian Federation, Vladimir Putin, outlining a proposal aiming to harmonize the vital further implementation of the memorandum of understanding and with the vital need to keep the Black Sea Initiative operational," Dujarric said a at briefing.
The Black Sea Grain Intuitive, or the grain deal, was signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022. The UN, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine signed two documents to open a grain corridor from three Ukrainian ports (Chernomorsk, Odessa and Yuzhny) and to lift restrictions on Russian food and fertilizer exports.
The grain deal was extended in November 2022 for 120 days, then on March 18 for 60 days until May 18.
On May 25, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Black Sea Grain Initiative will need alternatives if the Russian Agricultural Bank was not connected to SWIFT and if there was no progress in solving other 'systemic' problems blocking Russian agricultural export.
In June, the UN secretary-general said hard work was ongoing to extend the deal but expressed concerns that Russia might leave it in July.
Earlier, Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow was thinking about leaving the grain deal.