June 21 () –
The Secretary General of the United Nations, António Guterres, has shown this Tuesday his disappointment at “the slowness” of the inspections carried out within the framework of the grain agreement and has called for “everything possible” to be done to renew this “vital agreement”. .
“(Guterres) is disappointed by the slowness of the inspections and the exclusion of the port of Yuzhny/Pivdennyi from the Black Sea Initiative,” reads a statement from the deputy spokesman for the secretary general, Farhan Haq.
“This has resulted in a reduction in ship traffic entering and leaving Ukraine’s seaports, which has caused a drop in the supply of essential food to global markets,” Haq explained in the same note.
In this regard, the UN Secretary General on Tuesday called for operations to be speeded up and urged the parties involved to “do everything possible to guarantee the continuity of the agreement”, whose renewal is scheduled for July 17.
Guterres has also expressed UN support for both the Black Sea Grain Initiative and the Memorandum of Understanding on Russian fertilizer and food exports.
“This is especially important now that the new cereal harvest is starting both in Ukraine and in the Russian Federation,” Guterres said.
This agreement, which has already faced several extensions, expires in mid-July and from Kiev they seem not to be in the business of extending it once more, even going so far as to propose their own plans to export their agricultural products independently to countries in need.
The Russian authorities have repeatedly warned that they will not approve a new extension of the grain agreement if these requirements, related to the part of the agreement, approved in July 2022, are not met.
Since its inception in July 2022, the Black Sea Grain Initiative has achieved the safe export of more than 30 million tons of grain.
