“The Black Sea Grain Initiative, signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, has been extended,” the United Nations said in a statement.
It has done so after both Ukraine and Turkey have advanced the news.
The UN did not indicate in its announcement the period of this extension, although in recent days it had insisted that the extensions provided for in the initial agreement were always 120 days.
According to the Ukrainian Minister of Community Development, Territories and Infrastructure, Oleksandr Kubrakov, that is the time for which the continuity of the Initiative has been agreed, compared to the 60 days that Russia wanted.
Like the United Nations, the mediator Turkey has not specified the duration of this extension either and according to diplomatic sources there may be some “ambiguity” in this regard, which in this case would have made it easier for the mechanism to continue in force.
This week Russia had said that it would only accept a 60-day extension to see if during that period there was progress in the export of its own agricultural products, which have been indirectly affected by Western sanctions.
“If Washington, Brussels and London want to continue exporting through maritime corridors, they should remember that they have two months left to end the sanctions that the logistics chain supports in relation to Russian agricultural exports,” the Russian ambassador said yesterday. before the UN, Vasili Nebenzia.
In parallel to the Black Sea agreement, the UN sealed a memorandum with Russia to try to facilitate these sales, which among other things led the Western powers to clarify that their sanctions do not affect these movements.
However, according to the United Nations, Russian exports continue to encounter difficulties, especially due to payment systems and the reluctance of private companies to participate in these operations to avoid possible sanctions violations.
In his statement this Saturday, the organization’s spokesman, Stéphane Dujarric, stressed that both the Black Sea Initiative and that memorandum are “key to global food security, especially for developing countries.”
“We remain firmly committed to the two agreements and call on all parties to redouble their efforts to fully implement them,” Dujarric said.
Source: Euronews Español
