The United Nations and Russia began talks Monday on renewing the Ukraine grain export deal, which has helped ease the global food crisis triggered by Moscow’s invasion of its neighbor.
UN humanitarian chief Martin Griffith did not comment to reporters as he arrived for the talks at the Palais des Nations UN headquarters in Geneva, nor did Rebeca Grynspan, head of the UN’s trade and development agency UNCTAD.
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The round of negotiations between the UN and Russia in Geneva on the situation with the grain deal has been completed, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Monday.
"We have just completed another round of consultations of the Russian interdepartmental delegation with UN representatives headed by UNCTAD Secretary General R. Grynspan and OCHA head M. Griffiths," he said at a briefing.
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Russia has no objections against the extension of the Black Sea Grain Initiative but for sixty days only, Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told reporters on Monday after consultations with UN representatives.
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Talks in Geneva were "detailed and frank," the Russian diplomat said. Consultations confirmed again that while commercial exports of Ukrainian products are being made at a steady pace with huge profits for Kiev, then "barriers remain on the path of Russian agricultural exporters," Vershinin said. "Sanction exemptions for food and fertilizers declared by Washington, Brussels and London do not actually work," he noted.
The position of Russia will be determined further on depending on the actual progress in normalizing Russian agricultural exports, Vershinin added.