United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres has appointed a new agency coordinator for the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the agreement reached in July between Ukraine and Russia to allow the resumption of grain exports through Ukrainian ports.
Guterres’ office has indicated that Kuwait’s Abdullah Abdulsamad Dashti will replace Sudan’s Amir Mahmud Abula, who had been the UN coordinator for the initiative–launched by Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the United Nations–since August.
Guterres highlighted Abdula’s «leadership,» «hard work» and «commitment to implementing the initiative,» before stressing that Dashti, who retired in 2021 from the Kuwaiti Armed Forces with the rank of vice-admiral, «has 40 years of experience in areas of naval operations (…) both in Kuwait and multinational deployments.»
The Russian and Ukrainian governments announced on November 17 an agreement to extend the agreement reached in July for the export of grain from Ukrainian ports, although Kiev clarified that it had proposed that it should be «at least one year», something rejected by Moscow.
Russia and Ukraine signed an agreement on July 22 after the mediation of Turkey and the United Nations to unblock the export of grain and fertilizers, a pact that was briefly interrupted by Moscow’s accusations against Kiev for alleged threats to the security of the corridor. Eventually, Moscow announced its return to the agreement after citing Ukrainian «guarantees», although Kiev denied having made concessions.
Source: (EUROPA PRESS)
