The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, said on Tuesday that the UN Secretary General, António Guterres, has “made efforts in the right direction” in favor of Russian food and fertilizer exports without sanctions, but regretted the lack of results.
“I cannot say that the United Nations (UN) has not made efforts in the right direction. On the contrary, the Secretary General, António Guterres, […] has defended it. He has been trying to reach an agreement with the countries that announced illegitimate sanctions against the Russian Federation. But practically no results,” Lavrov told reporters in New York.
The Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs gave a long press conference today at the United Nations headquarters, where he is meeting on the occasion of Russia’s rotating monthly presidency of the Security Council.
Lavrov referred to Guterres’s negotiations and efforts regarding the extension of the Black Sea Grain Agreement, an initiative signed last summer between Russia and Ukraine, with the mediation of the UN and Turkey, which aimed at the flow of grain and food blocked in Ukrainian ports. since the Russian invasion in February 2022.
Alongside the grain deal, a memorandum to facilitate Russian exports of food and fertilizer was also signed, but which Moscow says is not being followed.
Russia even admits not extending the agreement – whose term ends on May 18 – if there is no progress in fulfilling these commitments, including the end of obstacles to agricultural exports and the reconnection to the Swift international banking system of the Russian Agricultural Bank Rosselkhozbank .
In Lavrov’s opinion, Western countries do not intend to reconnect Rosselkhozbank with Swift.
“Rosselkhozbank, the main creditor servicing our agricultural exports, has been cut off from the Swift system and no one is going to bring it back online,” he said.
According to Lavrov, Guterres turned to three US banks asking them to replace the Swift and help the Russian Agricultural Bank handle export transactions.
The minister defended the need for the West to reconnect the Russian bank to Swift if it really wants to solve the problem of food shortages in the world.
Still on Guterres’ efforts, Sergei Lavrov said he knew the former Portuguese prime minister “very well” and assured that he trusts his “honest and persistent efforts” to “persuade those who imposed sanctions to make an exception, at least for export agricultural”. of cereals and export of fertilizers”.
“Unfortunately, these efforts were not productive,” he said, reinforcing the impasse scenario facing the continuation of the Grain Agreement.
On Monday, Guterres handed Lavrov a letter addressed to Russian President Vladimir Putin with a proposal to “improve and extend” the Black Sea Grain Agreement.
In a meeting between the two at UN headquarters, the secretary-general expressed his concern about the obstacles recently encountered by the Joint Coordination Center – the group that facilitates the implementation of the grain agreement – in its daily operations.
In this sense, Guterres addressed a letter to Vladimir Putin, “outlining a proposal for a roadmap to follow aimed at improving, expanding and expanding the Agreement, taking into account the positions recently expressed by the parties and the risks posed by food insecurity world”. according to the UN leader’s office.
At today’s press conference, Lavrov also downplayed the package of sanctions imposed on Russia after the invasion of Ukraine, applied mainly by Western countries, arguing that his country is managing to “develop its own economy and make use of its own sources”. all this “without artificial dependence on the dollar.”
The official said he was convinced that the war in Ukraine brought another consequence: the loss of importance of the dollar as a reference currency, compared to other currencies or digital currencies, in what he described as an “irreversible transition.”
According to Lavrov, the world is witnessing the “end of globalization” and the emergence of “fragmentation and regionalization”, and in this sense, without going into details, he mentioned his recent meeting with the Brazilian president, Lula da Silva, and possible reform of the International Monetary Fund.
In this meeting with the press, the minister also referred to the arrest of the American journalist Evan Gershkovich and acknowledged that “there are discussions” about a possible exchange of prisoners – there are 60 Russian prisoners who can be included in this exchange, according to Lavrov. -, but he avoided delving into the subject, “because that would only complicate things.”
The head of Russian diplomacy also took the opportunity to complain about the difficulty for Russian journalists in obtaining visas in the United States, a policy that, in his opinion, is intended to “silence alternative points of view.”
“We will take reciprocal measures. We will certainly take this inappropriate behavior of the US leadership into account when the Americans need something from us,” Lavrov said.
Russia, one of the five permanent members of the Security Council and with veto power, this month assumed the rotating presidency of the body, which has the power to pass binding resolutions.
Lavrov traveled to New York as part of that presidency, having led a meeting on multilateralism on Monday and a debate on the Middle East today.
Source: TSF
