MOSCOW, July 18 The UN Secretariat has 90 more days to normalize Russian agricultural exports, the Russian Foreign Ministry said.
The agency noted that, according to paragraph 6 of the RF-UN Memorandum, the agreement «will be valid for 3 years», and if one of the parties — Russia or the UN — intends to stop its application, it must notify 3 months in advance.
Yesterday, 09:33
«Thus, the UN Secretariat still has a whole 90 days to continue its work on the normalization of Russian agricultural exports. These are exactly the 90 days during which the UN Secretary General planned to restore access to the SWIFT system for the «subsidiary» or affiliated structure of the Russian Agricultural Bank, as indicated in the message he quoted,» the statement says.
The department noted that there are no alternatives to the direct reconnection of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT — neither through a channel with JP Morgan, nor within the «theoretical platform» with Citi and Afreximbank, nor with the options of subsidiaries.
Russia on Monday notified Turkey, Ukraine and the UN that it was opposed to extending the grain deal. This means the withdrawal of Russian guarantees for the safety of navigation and the curtailment of the maritime humanitarian corridor in the northwestern Black Sea. For this area, the regime temporarily dangerous for navigation is being restored. Thus, without the participation of Russia, the Black Sea Grain Initiative ceased to function on July 18.
The Black Sea Initiative, which was signed on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN, involves the export of Ukrainian grain and food, as well as fertilizers across the Black Sea from three ports, including Odessa. The coordination of vessel traffic is handled by the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul. Russian President Vladimir Putin pointed out that the West exports most of the Ukrainian grain to their own states, and not to needy countries in Africa. The grain initiative is an integral part of the package agreement.
The second part — the Russia-UN memorandum, designed for three years — provides for the unblocking of Russian exports of food and fertilizers, among the main tasks were the reconnection of the Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT, the resumption of supplies of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services, the restoration of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline and a number of other measures. As noted in Moscow, this part of the package agreement was not implemented.
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