The Secretary-General of the United Nations, António Guterres, met on Monday with the Russian Foreign Minister, Sergei Lavrov, during which they discussed the situation in Ukraine and Guterres took the opportunity to personally deliver to the Russian a letter addressed to the President of Russia, Vladimir Putin.
According to a UN statement following the meeting, the letter »outlines a proposed way forward aimed at the improvement, extension and expansion of the (Black Sea agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain) BSGI, taking into account the positions recently expressed by the parties and the risks posed by global food insecurity», noting that »a similar letter has been addressed to the other signatories of the agreement».
For its part, the Russian Foreign Ministry has detailed that the minister »severely criticized the behavior of Western states that use the UN platform to promote politicized anti-Russian initiatives that only manage to prolong the current crisis», in line with statements made during the Security Council session hours earlier.
As for the agreement, Russia has stressed the importance of fulfilling its agreement for the export of Russian fertilizers, and while recalling »the interconnected package nature of these agreements in the context of stable Ukrainian grain supplies», admitted that »there are still no concrete changes in the implementation of the memorandum between Russia and the UN Secretariat».
The main topic of the conversation has been the war in Ukraine, but in both communiqués it is indicated that they have also talked about the situation in Syria, Afghanistan, Yemen and the situation in Jerusalem.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
