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Lavrov sees no trickery in UN secretary-general’s grain deal initiative

"I am one hundred percent sure that he was absolutely sincere", Russian Foreign Minister said

UNITED NATIONS, April 26. /TASS/. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov does not believe that UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had any tricks in mind when he put forward the Black Sea grain initiative.

"I do not suspect <…> the UN secretary general of having any tricks in mind when he was suggesting this deal. I am one hundred percent sure that he was absolutely sincere. I know Antonio Guterres well, and I can say this with certainty," Lavrov told reporters during his visit to New York on Tuesday.

"However, his honest and persistent efforts were aimed at convincing those who had imposed sanctions to make an exception, at least for agricultural exports of grain and fertilizers. Those efforts have produced no result," he said.

Agreements on the export of food from Ukraine were concluded on July 22, 2022, for 120 days and extended in November for the same period. One of the agreements regulates the order of grain supplies from the Kiev-controlled ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Moreover, a memorandum was inked by Russia and the UN on lifting export restrictions for Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to global markets. Moscow notes that the second part of the agreement is not being implemented. On March 18, Russia announced that the deal was being extended for 60 days, warning that this would be enough time to assess the efficacy of the memorandum signed with the UN.

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Foreign policy Sergey Lavrov

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