UNCTAD Chief Says Will Unlikely Visit Russia This Week For Talks On Extending Grain Deal

Muhammad Irfan Published July 12, 2023 | 10:02 PM

The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said on Wednesday that she will likely not visit Moscow this week to discuss the prospects for extending the grain exports agreement, formally known as the Black Sea initiative

UNITED NATIONS (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 12th July, 2023) The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Secretary-General Rebeca Grynspan said on Wednesday that she will likely not visit Moscow this week to discuss the prospects for extending the grain exports agreement, formally known as the Black Sea initiative.

"It doesn't look like it," Grynspan said when asked if she would travel to Moscow this week for discussions to potentially extend the grain exports agreement.

UN Assistant Secretary for Humanitarian Affairs Martin Griffiths said last week that Greenspan was very interested to "sit down at the table" in Moscow before the agreement expires on July 17.

On July 22, 2022, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations reached an agreement to provide a humanitarian maritime corridor for food and fertilizer exports from Ukrainian Black Sea ports.

Moscow has since agreed to several extensions of the deal, but has repeatedly complained that the part of the agreement pertaining to Russia has not been fully implemented.

On June 7, the Russian Defense Ministry said a Ukrainian sabotage group had blown up the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline in the Kharkov region. The Kremlin said the sabotage would complicate the extension of the grain agreement.

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said last week that Russia believed July 18 to be the day when the grain agreement is terminated.