UN secretary general António Guterres said that an “important and substantive step” was made towards a comprehensive deal to resume Black Sea exports of Ukraine grain after talks between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and UN officials on Wednesday.
“Next week, hopefully, we’ll be able to have a final agreement. But, as I said, we still need a lot of goodwill and commitments by all parties,” he told reporters in New York.
He said that although Ukraine and Russia had engaged, “for peace we still have a long way to go.”
In a statement, Turkey’s minister for defense Hulusi Akar said the talks had resulted in an agreement to form a co-ordination center to ensure the safety of routes. He said the agreement would be signed next week when all parties meet again, adding the parties had agreed on joint controls for checking grains at harbors.
The war has trapped about 22 million tons of grain inside Ukraine, according to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskiy.
Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN met in Istanbul as they scrambled for a solution that would empty the silos in time for the upcoming harvest in Ukraine. Some grain is being transported through Europe by rail, road and river but the amount is small compared with the Black Sea routes.
News of a deal between Ukraine and Russia to free up the delivery of millions of tons of grain obviously depressed food commodity prices, which will benefit Turkey greatly, as the country imports huge quantities of wheat, corn and sunflower form Ukraine.
However, we are not certain the presumed deal can be finalized. According to AP, the Ukrainian foreign minister says grain exports from his country’s ports won’t resume without security guarantees for ship owners, cargo owners and Ukraine as an independent nation.
Military officials from Russia and Ukraine held their governments’ first face-to-face talks in months Wednesday. They met in Istanbul to discuss a United Nations plan for getting blocked Ukrainian grain to world markets through the Black Sea.
Speaking to The Associated Press ahead of the talks, Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said any agreement needs to ensure Russia “will respect these corridors, they will not sneak into the harbor and attack ports or that they will not attack ports from the air with their missiles.”
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