Oct. 29 () –
The Secretary General of the United Nations, Antonio Guterres, has declared his organization’s “unwavering” support for the indirect agreement signed in July between Russia and Ukraine to allow the export of grain from the besieged ports of war; a pact that has saved 100 million people from falling into extreme poverty.
Under the deal, a coalition of Turkish, Ukrainian and UN personnel oversee grain loading onto ships in the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chernomosk and Pivdenyi, before sailing a pre-planned route through the Black Sea.
The ships cross the Black Sea to Turkey’s Bosphorus Strait, where a joint coordination center has been established in Istanbul, including representatives from the UN, Ukraine, Russia and Turkey, to ensure that ships entering Ukraine do not carry weapons or combat material.
The agreement, accompanied by a permit for the export of Russian fertilizers, aims to avoid “a global food crisis” that the United Nations is doing everything possible to avoid.
“Without food and fertilizers not arriving right now, a dramatic effect on production and food costs awaits us. Right now it is a price crisis. It could become an availability crisis,” the secretary general warned.
The agreement has already facilitated the exit of nine million tons of grain and has contributed to significantly lowering the price of wheat, explained Guterres, now awaiting the renewal of the agreement on November 19 “if no party objects.”
“We ask all parties to make every effort to extend the agreement and implement it in all its aspects,” Guterres said.
