UN is working to expand and extend for a year the deal enabling Ukrainian Black Sea grain exports, which could expire in late November.
As UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric stated, UN is “trying to remove the uncertainty to ensure that people are publicly saying that ‘yes, this will be extended a further year,’ but we’re not there yet.”
The team is also working to facilitate Russian grain and fertilizer exports.
The Secretary General and his team are engaged in intense contacts on these issues. Mr. Guterres and the team are working hard on having an expanded and extended Black Sea Grain Initiative
Mr. Dujarric said, adding that “they’re working actively to remove also the last obstacles to facilitate the export of Russian grain and fertilizer.”
During September, Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to leave the Black Sea Grain Initiative, claiming that not enough grain was going to the world’s poor.
This is not the firsts time Putin has made this claim, as he has raised doubts about the long-term survival of the United Nations-brokered pact again in the past.
According to the Wall Street Journal, he noted that “let’s really hope that a significant part of it—so far this has not been achieved—will still go through the U.N. food program for the poorest countries.”
If Russia leaves the grain export agreement, it would likely lead to another increase in global food prices, in a time when Putin has repeatedly warned that Western measures against Russia are harming the world’s poorer countries.
