MOSCOW, September 6. /TASS/. Issues of food security and the implementation of the memorandum on Russia’s agricultural exports were the focus of a meeting between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin and visiting Secretary General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) Rebeca Grynspan, the Russian foreign ministry said.

"The sides discussed in detail the current situation on the global markets of food and fertilizers, ways of implementing the Russia-UN memorandum on the normalization of Russia’s agricultural exports. They noted continuing crisis situations in the area of global food security and growing famine threats," the ministry said.

According to the ministry, ensuring stable and uninterrupted supplies of Russian grain and fertilizer to global markets, especially to the developing and poorest countries, is among the most pressing tasks of today.

Under the memorandum between Russia and the United Nations, the latter bound itself to take steps toward removing anti-Russian restrictions hampering Russia’s exports of food and fertilizer. Vershinin recalled that the memorandum is in effect until 2025.

A package of documents geared to resolve the problem of food and fertilizer supplies on global markets was signed on July 22, 2022 in Istanbul and expired on July 17, 2023. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly pointed to the fact that the West exported the bulk of Ukrainian grain to its countries while the key goal of the deal, i.e. supplying grain to the poorest, including African, countries, was never a priority. According to Putin’s press secretary Dmitry Peskov, Russia is ready to return to the deal only when its part concerning Russia’s exports in implemented.