UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres proposed that Russia’s agricultural bank Rosselhobank be re-connected to the SWIFT payment system in exchange for extending the grain agreement.
The Black Sea grain transport agreement, which enabled Ukrainian grain to enter the world market, is set to expire on Monday, if an agreement is not reached before then.
President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday that his and Russia’s president Vladimir Putin sometimes there is a consensus on the extension of the contract.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov according to the Russian state news agency, however, Russia has not made any kind of statement regarding the extension of the agreement Interfax.
One of Russia’s key demands is the reintegration of the agricultural bank Rosselhobank into the international SWIFT payment system. The European Union blocked the bank’s access to the payment system in June 2022 due to the war of aggression started by Russia.
Secretary General of the UN Antonio Guterres proposed on Tuesday that the Rosselhobank subsidiary be rejoined as part of the payment system in exchange for the contract being extended.
Guterres asked Russia to extend the agreement for “several months” so that the EU would have enough time to integrate the agricultural bank’s subsidiary into the payment system. On Thursday, Guterres told reporters that he has not received a response from Russia to his proposal.
According to Russian state news agency Tassi, Putin has not received Guterres’ proposal. However, Putin said that he is in contact with UN officials on the matter.
On Thursday, the European Commission said it would help Turkey and the UN continue the agreement. The EU is currently considering re-integrating Rosselhobank’s subsidiary into the SWIFT payment system in order to continue the grain agreement.
The UN and Turkey negotiated the Black Sea Grain Agreement with Ukraine and Russia in July last year.
The purpose of the agreement is to guarantee the access of Ukrainian grain to the world market via the Black Sea. Thanks to it, Ukraine has been able to export more than 32 million tons of grain and other foodstuffs to the world market from three ports.
In order to get Putin to agree to the deal, the UN agreed to help Russia continue exporting food and fertilizers to the world market. However, according to Russia, this part of the agreement has not been fulfilled.
Sources: Reuters, AP