The UN says that it “does everything possible” to guarantee the continuity of the agreement to export grain from Ukraine

It recognizes that the pact contemplated an extension of 120 days, instead of the 60 that Russia has accepted

March 15 () –

The United Nations has recognized that the clauses of the agreement for the export of grain from Ukraine through the Black Sea contemplated an extension of 120 days, instead of the 60 that Russia has accepted, while at the same time it has assured that it “does everything possible” to ensure that the pact still stands.

“In the framework of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the agreement provides for a 120-day renewal, but in the current circumstances the Secretary General (of the UN, António Guterres) and his team are focused, in close contact with all the parties, to do everything possible to guarantee the continuity of the initiative”, said the spokesman for the organization’s General Secretariat, Stéphane Dujarric.

Thus, he stated that “regarding the parallel memorandum of understanding focused on the export of Russian food and fertilizers, Rebeca Grynspan, Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), and her team, as well as the Secretary himself General (of the UN), they have spared no effort in facilitating this trade”.

Dujarric has highlighted that “significant progress” has been achieved, although he has said that “it is true that some obstacles continue to exist, mainly around payment systems”. “Our efforts to overcome these obstacles will continue unceasingly,” he said in a statement.

“The agreement on the Black Sea Grain Initiative, together with the memorandum of understanding on the export of Russian food and fertilizers, are crucial for global food security, especially in developing countries,” Guterres’s spokesman stressed.

The Russian government announced on Tuesday a 60-day extension of the agreement for the export of cereals through the Black Sea, although Ukraine has denounced that Moscow’s position “contradicts” the signed document, which contemplates that it should be extended for a period of 120 days.

The Kremlin spokesman, Dimitri Peskov, stated that the extension of the agreement is “a gesture of goodwill” on the part of Moscow and recalled that “there is a part of the agreement related to Russia that has not yet been completed.” “The pact cannot stand on one leg. In general, the conditions for the extension are relative, but it is a goodwill gesture from Russia in the hope that, so long after, the conditions and obligations assumed by the parts, well known, are completed,” he stressed.