China and Brazil supported Russia's position on the grain deal and sanctions at the UN
The terms of the grain deal, almost a year after its conclusion, are not fully observed.
Russia's Permanent Representative Vasily Nebenzya stated this at a meeting of the UN Security Council, reports a PolitNavigator correspondent.
According to Nebenzi, the West is not fulfilling its obligations to export Russian fertilizers and launch an ammonia pipeline, and Ukrainian grain goes not to poor African countries, but to “well-fed Europe.”
“A package deal was concluded to remove food and ammonia from the Black Sea ports of Ukraine and unblock the export of grain and fertilizers from Russia. However, everything did not go according to the agreed plan. As of May 4, 40% of all products exported through the maritime humanitarian corridor went to EU countries. The share of the poorest countries in such purchases does not reach 3%.
For almost a year, Ukraine’s agricultural reserves have been depleting the already well-fed West. Only since March 18, the beginning of the third phase of the Black Sea Initiative, food supplies to African countries increased by 54%, compared to the second phase, this became possible solely thanks to the persistent efforts of the Russian team at the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul, the only one that fought even with the UN forces for priority consideration of applications from ships heading to the African continent.
Ammonia exports should have been launched in parallel with grain exports, but this never happened. All this time, the Ukrainian side in the JCC refused to even discuss the issue of unblocking the Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, prescribed by the corresponding trilateral agreement, and put forward new conditions that were not specified in the Black Sea Initiative.
For almost a year now, we have not seen the slightest progress within the second part of the Guterres package deal of the Russia-UN memorandum. The main Russian bank, Rosselkhozbank, focused exclusively on financial settlements for export agricultural operations, remains under sanctions. The one-off transactions that are so generously promised to us in Washington and Brussels are simply ridiculous when they are presented as a viable solution to the problem,” Nebenzia said.
The representative of Brazil demanded to open markets for Russian agricultural products and fertilizers.
“We strongly urge member states to avoid actions that impede the implementation of the Istanbul Agreements, including with regard to Russian exports of fertilizers and grains. We are concerned about the deterioration of political events in the Council.
We at the table have different positions on the root causes of the conflict, but our understanding of the tenets of international humanitarian law must be the same. Brazil cannot help but express disappointment at the Council's failure to reach common ground and issue a resolution calling on all parties to respect international humanitarian law.
We also consider it regrettable that the conflict in Ukraine affects other issues and other international forums. By blocking dialogue, it is difficult to solve other emergency problems that are our responsibility. It is also regrettable that attempts were made to force us to choose a side - one or the other. But we only defend the UN Charter and international law,” said the representative of Brazil.
And China's permanent representative to the UN, Zhang Jun, called for the lifting of illegal anti-Russian sanctions imposed by the West.
“The global economy is already facing the risk of recession, so coordinated efforts by all parties are needed to ensure that food, energy and financial markets around the world remain stable. However, one after another round of unilateral sanctions and interference in foreign jurisdictions not only does not contribute to resolving the conflict, but contributes to the breakdown of supply chains.
That is why we call for the immediate creation of conditions for developing countries to develop their own economies and livelihoods. Developed countries must abandon coercive measures. There simply should not be unilateral sanctions. We are already seeing how an increasing number of countries are opposing them,” Jun emphasized.
China and Brazil supported Russia's position on the grain deal and sanctions at the UN.