CAIRO, July 24. /TASS/. A third party, which will be determined later, will ensure the security of ships with Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea, along with Russia and Turkey, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday.
"We managed to reach an agreement in Istanbul: Ukraine demines ports and lets ships take to sea, while Russia, Turkey and one more party, which will be determined later, escort the ships to the Bosporus," he said at a meeting with the ambassadors of the Arab League nations.
According to Lavrov, the Russia-UN memorandum that was signed concurrently with the agreements in Istanbul "binds the United Nations Secretary General to launch the process, persuade Western countries to lift all restrictions" imposed on the export of Russian grain.
The minister recalled that food was not covered by the anti-Russian sanctions directly. But Russian ships with food are banned from calling at foreign ports and foreign ships cannot call at Russian ports to take grain, he said, adding that the sanctions apply to payment and insurance mechanisms and this has only aggravated the global food crisis.
He stressed that this crisis has not originated through Russia’s fault. It was caused by the breaks in supplies chains due to the coronavirus pandemic, uncontrolled money minting in the United States and the European Union to pay for food and medicines. Moreover, the crisis was aggravated by the draught haunting North Africa for four years in a row.
A package of documents geared to resolve the problem of food and fertilizer supplies on global markets was signed on July 22 in Istanbul. Under the Russia-UN memorandum, the United Nations undertakes to work toward lifting anti-Russian restrictions hampering exports of agricultural products and fertilizers. Another document envisages a mechanism of exporting grain from Ukraine-controlled Black Sea ports. An agreement between Russia, Turkey and the United Nations provides for the establishment of a four-side coordination center to search ships carrying grain to prevent weapons smuggling and avoid provocations.