Nebenzya: Russia sees no prospects for extending the grain deal

The agreements under the grain deal are not being implemented, so Moscow sees no prospects for its extension, said Russia’s Permanent Representative to the UN Vasily Nebenzya, transmits TASS.

“We announced that the condition for further extension is the implementation of those five points, without a solution on which the functioning of the memorandum of understanding between Russia and the UN is impossible. Since these items are not being implemented, despite all the efforts of the UN Secretariat and the Secretary General personally, we see no prospects for an extension,” Nebenzya said.

According to him, the problems “rest” in the sanctions imposed against Russia by Western countries. “They [США и ЕС] they say that food and fertilizers are not subject to sanctions, but this is all a sly position, because food and fertilizers themselves are not subject, but everything that accompanies, associated with the export of fertilizers, just falls. This includes freight, insurance, and bank transfers, this is the maintenance of agricultural machinery,” Nebenzya said.

As the diplomat pointed out, they are trying to convince Russia that these issues have supposedly been resolved, but in fact they have not been resolved. According to him, one-time deals do not solve the problem systematically. Answering a question about the fate of the deal after July 17, the diplomat said that “there is still time.”

How declared Earlier, Deputy Foreign Minister of the Russian Federation Sergey Vershinin, the Russian Foreign Ministry also believes that there are no prospects for extending the grain deal. But the diplomat added that the Russian side continues consultations with UN representatives.

Commenting on the words of Vershinin, the representative of the UN Secretary General Stephane Dujarric saidthat the international organization continues negotiations with Russia and Ukraine to extend the grain deal. At the same time, he said that he would not directly answer Vershinin.

The grain deal was concluded on July 22, 2022 by representatives of Turkey and the UN on the one hand and representatives of Russia and Ukraine on the other. Separate agreements were concluded with Moscow and Kiev: the first was for the export of Ukrainian grain from three ports, including Odessa, Yuzhny and Chernomorsk, and the second was for assistance in the export of Russian grain and fertilizers. Moscow has repeatedly noted that the second part of the deal is not being implemented.

On May 17, the grain deal was extended for another two months. Russia insists on five “systemic” objectives of the deal, on which there is no progress: reconnecting Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT, resuming supplies of spare parts for agricultural machinery, unblocking transport logistics and insurance, restoring the ammonia pipeline and unfreezing the assets of Russian companies. On May 18, the Russian Foreign Ministry stated that if Russia’s conditions are not met, then “there is no question of any expansion of the” Black Sea initiative “in principle.