NEW DELHI, September 10. /TASS/. The content of the letter from UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres on the grain deal gives the impression that the West is trying to use the Secretary General to promote unilateral approaches on this topic. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said this at a press conference following the G20 summit.
"Having read the contents of this letter (from UN Secretary General Guterres to Lavrov - TASS), it seems that again, unfortunately, they are trying to use the Secretary General to promote unilateral approaches, because the whole point of his letter is that "let's urgently renew the Ukrainian grain deal, and for this, within a month we will do something to connect someone to SWIFT, within two or three months we will somehow try to come to an agreement with the insurance company Lloyd's and so on," Lavrov said.
In this regard, the Foreign Minister called it untrue that the Russian Agricultural Bank will be reconnected to SWIFT. "Nobody promised this, including Mr. Guterres," he emphasized.
Lavrov added that the West is trying to persuade Russia to reconnect through a branch in Luxembourg. "But this branch does not have a license for banking operations, in general it has already exhausted its capabilities there, it will be closed there," he said.
Speaking about the situation around the insurance company Lloyd's, Lavrov recalled that Guterres, back in Jakarta, said that "he seemed to have agreed to host some kind of UN consultations on the site of this structure." "But "with what functions" - we don’t have an answer to this question either," he noted.
Lavrov emphasized that the Russian side appreciates the efforts made by UN Secretary General Guterres. "The President [of Russia, Vladimir Putin] has spoken about this more than once, and I expressed gratitude to him [Guterres] for what he is doing, but these efforts are all doomed in a situation where the West only makes promises," he noted.
The Foreign Minister cited the words of the Russian President that Moscow will return "to the collective implementation of the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea initiative" the same day all the actions necessary to remove any obstacles to Russian exports of fertilizers and grain are completed.