On June 9, a regular round of consultations was held in Geneva by Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation Sergey Vershinin with the involvement of interested Russian departments and companies with a UN delegation headed by Secretary General of the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) R. Greenspan.
A detailed exchange of views took place on the issues of ensuring the implementation of the Russia-UN Memorandum on the normalization of domestic agricultural exports. Special attention was paid to the review of the current situation with the solution of five systemic problems – the reconnection of Rosselkhoznadzor to SWIFT; the resumption of supplies of spare parts and equipment; transport logistics and insurance; the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline and the unblocking of “frozen” assets of Russian companies.
The Russian side noted the lack of progress on three of the five tasks (ammonia pipeline, reconnection to SWIFT and spare parts). Progress along these tracks is, in fact, completely blocked by Western capitals. S.V. Vershinin condemned the undermining by Ukrainians of the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline on the territory controlled by Kiev and noted that this dealt a serious blow to the very concept of the Istanbul agreements of July 22, 2022, including the “Black Sea Initiative”, an integral part of which were supplies ammonia.
In this regard, it is reaffirmed that only a speedy and effective settlement of these problems can contribute to the restoration of unhindered access of Russian food and fertilizers to world markets, which corresponds to the goals of global food security in general. The attention of the UN representatives was drawn to the fact that until now Russian producers and suppliers of agricultural products are forced to overcome numerous restrictions and barriers provoked by illegal anti-Russian sanctions related to bank payments, delivery and insurance of goods independently and at great cost, which negatively affects prices and physical availability of goods.
