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Permanent Mission of the Russian Federation to the European Union

Submitted on 2022-11-19 22:41:45

On the Black Sea initiative for the export of Ukrainian food

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The four-party deal by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations, signed in Istanbul on July 22, will expire on 18 November 2022. The text of the document provides for its automatic extension for another 120 days in the absence of objections from any of the parties.

No such objections have been received.

The Russian side also allows for the technical extension of the Black Sea initiative without any changes in its terms or scope. Moscow has clearly and openly emphasised that the agreements on Ukrainian food and the effective implementation of the Russian-UN Memorandum on the normalisation of Russian agricultural exports is a package deal, and that remains unchanged. We took note of the intensification of the UN Secretariat’s effort to fulfil its obligations in this regard and the information provided to us on the intermediate results of its work to remove obstacles to Russian fertiliser and food exports. All these issues must be resolved within 120 days, the period for which the package deal is to be extended.

We note that, after our repeated reminders, efforts have begun to be made towards unblocking the nearly 300,000 tonnes of Russian fertilisers detained in EU ports, which Russia is donating to developing countries in need. Further delay of these urgently needed shipments is unacceptable.

It should also be absolutely clear that any attempt to use the humanitarian corridor in the Black Sea for military provocations will receive a harsh response.

We believe that Russia’s considerations and concerns will be fully taken into account in the coming period, which will ensure well-coordinated work without any imbalances and the due result achieved from the full implementation of both Istanbul agreements in the interests of global food security.

Source: official web-site of the Russian MFA