Moscow has made it clear for months now, that the West has ignored the part of the July grain deal that required them to remove the conditions that prevent Russian fertilizer and produce from being exported to needy countries. Yesterday they made it clear that the grain deal will not be renewed next month without fair play.
Martin Griffiths, the UN humanitarian affairs chief, was in Moscow yesterday, along with Rebeca Grynspan, the Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. A major item on their agenda was renewal and implementation of the deal allowing the export of grain from Ukrainian ports, negotiated last July with Turkey as the mediator.
The Russian Foreign Ministry, after Griffiths met with Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin, stated: “With the focus on the package deal of agreements reached in Istanbul on July 22, importance was stressed to ensure their complete and intertwined performance — the Black Sea Initiative on Ukrainian food export (expiring on November 18) and the Russia-UN memorandum on normalization of national export of fertilizers and agricultural products (designed for three years),” as reported by TASS. Vershinin also noted the need of establishing sustainable grain and fertilizer suppliers, primarily to African, Asian, and Latin American countries with the greatest need, as the most vulnerable from the standpoint of famine threats and food security support.
