WASHINGTON, July 27. /TASS/. The United States welcomes the news about the launch of the Istanbul-based joint coordination center on grain deliveries from Ukraine, a senior White House official told reporters on Tuesday.
"We've seen the reports that the Joint Coordination Center has stood up. We welcome those reports," Coordinator for Strategic Communications at the National Security Council in the White House John Kirby said. "We find the establishment of the JCC encouraging."
"We're going to see how well it works," he continued. "There are some eighty ships that we're told are ready to sail or will be ready soon to sail with something like 20 million tons of grain. <…> And so we look forward to the JCC getting down to business, getting that grain moving by sea, and we certainly have every expectation that all parties to this agreement will meet their commitments."
The Turkish Defense Ministry reported on Tuesday the joint coordination center for safe grain exports from Ukraine would open in Istanbul on July 27. The center has been set up at the Turkish Defense Ministry’s university in Istanbul’s Levent neighborhood. According to Turkey’s media outlets, 20 people will work there, namely, Turkish, Russian and Ukrainian military officers and UN representatives, and headed by a Turkish admiral. Control over the safe navigation along grain transporting routes from Ukrainian ports will be exercised around the clock.
A package of documents geared towards resolving the issue 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 the 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, Ukraine and the United Nations provides for the establishment of a four-party coordination center to search ships carrying grain in order to prevent weapons smuggling and avoid any false flag.