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Russia sees UN Secretary-General’s efforts on grain deal but almost no progress — Lavrov

Unless you regard the hope beginning to appear that instead of normal supplies of necessary products to global markets it will be necessary to beg US, European ports, banks and other structures, insurance companies each time to show good will, as a result, Russian Foreign Minister said

UNITED NATIONS, April 25. /TASS/. Moscow has noted UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres’ efforts on the grain deal, though there is almost no progress on the issue of Russian agriculture exports, the country's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Tuesday.

"As far as our part of the deal is concerned, indeed, we see the efforts by Secretary-General and his colleagues, though there are almost no results," he told a press conference following a visit to New York as part of Moscow's presidency of the UN Security Council. "Unless you regard the hope beginning to appear that instead of normal supplies of necessary products to global markets it will be necessary to beg US, European ports, banks and other structures, insurance companies each time to show good will, as a result," the minister noted.

"We did not agree on that on July 22 of last year when we welcomed the initiative by Secretary-General, which he himself reiterates is of package nature. A package does not consist of one part," he added.