Negotiations Underway to Extend Ukraine Grain Trade Amid Global Food Crisis – National

Senior Russian and UN officials held talks in Switzerland on Friday to try to work out an extension of the deal allowing Ukrainian grain shipments and Russian food and fertilizer exports. Expired.

UN Humanitarian Chief Martin Griffiths and UN Trade Chief Rebecca Griffiths, who are in charge of the Russian side of the deal, were meeting in Geneva with a Russian team led by Under Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs Sergei Vershinin. .

Alessandra Bellucci, spokeswoman for the United Nations Geneva, told reporters: “We hope that this discussion will facilitate progress towards facilitating the unhindered export of food and fertilizer from the Russian Federation to world markets. there is,” he said.

Ukraine and Russia are major suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other foodstuffs, and especially in parts of Africa, the Middle East and Asia, where many people are already starving and food prices are soaring. This deal is important because The failure to renew wartime agreements has raised fears that the global food crisis will be exacerbated.

UN officials say the meeting will focus on the “full implementation” of two separate agreements signed with Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on July 22. Crimea.

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Russian officials say they are unhappy with the implementation of the deal and have yet to decide whether to extend the UN-Turkey-brokered deal, which is set to expire on November 18.

There are no U.S. or European Union sanctions on food and fertilizer shipments, but Russian diplomats cite issues of financing and obtaining insurance for vessels and finding ports where Russian vessels can dock.

“Many issues related to the well-known part of the so-called grain agreement need to be resolved,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters. “Here is the mutual understanding of the UN counterparts. Therefore, work is underway in this direction.”

Grinspan, chair of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, told the Security Council last week that Ukraine and Russia supply about 30% of world exports of wheat and barley, 20% of corn and more than 50% of sunflowers. said. oil. Russia is also the world’s largest fertilizer exporter, accounting for her 15% of global exports.

With more than 10 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain shipments from Black Sea ports, according to the United Nations, ending the deal could have knock-on effects on food prices, availability and security in many parts of the world. I have.

“I don’t think anyone wants the deal to end. Baker Ben Verhassen said.

“In the short term, certainly prices will have to respond, especially for things like wheat, corn and sunflower seed oil,” he told reporters at a UN briefing on Friday.

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