On the Istanbul food and fertiliser agreements There are moun | Russian MFA 🇷🇺

On the Istanbul food and fertiliser agreements

There are mounting speculations on further developments as the expiration date of the second 120-day term of the Black Sea Initiative on exporting Ukrainian grain draws nearer. At Kiev and Washington’s instigation, it is being insinuated that the initiative should be both preserved in its existing parameters (the three ports – Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny – for 120 days with the possibility of another 120-day extension, if none of the three parties – Russia, Türkiye or Ukraine – have any objections) and expanded in terms of time and space (for one year with the addition of more seaports). This is being accompanied by clumsy attempts to invoke UN efforts to ensure global food security.

In this connection, a reminder of the UN Secretary-General’s grain deal concept in general and of how the Istanbul Agreements of July 22, 2022 were signed in particular, is in order. As is common knowledge, Antonio Guterres suggested a package deal to normalise food and fertiliser supplies from Russia and Ukraine as a response to the worsening food crisis against the background of the Covid-19 pandemic, uncontrolled Western money printing, and an accelerated transition to the green economy. This suggestion was formalised in Istanbul on July 22, 2022, in the form of the simultaneous signing of two mutually complementary agreements – the above-mentioned Black Sea Initiative and the Russia-UN Memorandum on promoting Russian agricultural products.

Their synchronised and interconnected implementation is designed to reduce the threat of hunger and provide assistance to needy countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

But in practice, eight months after the signing, just one part of the package – the exportation of Ukrainian food – is being implemented. Moreover, the mode of its implementation is far from the announced humanitarian aims. <...>

Progress in implementing the Russia-UN Memorandum on promoting Russian agricultural exports is tending towards zero. The reason is the West’s stubborn unwillingness to recognise the second part of the Guterres package and their continued application of sanctions, which, despite all the empty declarations by Washington, Brussels and London, still extend to food and fertilisers. In fact, UN officials are trying to lift restrictions on Russian agricultural products; these restrictions must be null and void in a situation where global food security is at stake. But the UN efforts are futile. <...>

Thus, we have to state that the package of agreements proposed by Antonio Guterres and signed in Istanbul on July 22, 2022 is not working. The main problem is that the Western countries are sabotaging the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum. As is obvious, the Americans and Europeans are totally unconcerned with either the needs of destitute countries or the efforts of the United Nations, which they have long and persistently attempted to turn into an obedient tool for serving their political interests.

It is high time they stopped playing the food card. The lion’s share of Ukrainian grain is sold at dumping prices for fodder in the EU rather than in the poorest countries. At the same time, they openly put obstacles in the way of Russian agricultural exports, no matter what the Europeans and Americans say to the contrary. After all, they are not strangers to telling lies.

The West is shamelessly burying the humanitarian package initiated by the UN Secretary-General.