By Michelle Nichols
UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – The European Commission is helping the United Nations and Turkey try to extend a deal allowing the export of Ukrainian grain to the Black Sea – which could expire on Monday – and is open to “exploring all solutions”, it said. said a European Union spokesman. said Thursday.
The EU plans to connect a subsidiary of Russia’s Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the SWIFT international payments network to enable grain and fertilizer transactions, sources familiar with the talks told Reuters on Wednesday.
UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres proposed in a letter to Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday that Moscow allow the Black Sea Grains deal to continue for several months to give the EU time to connecting a Rosselkhozbank subsidiary to SWIFT, two such sources familiar with the talks. told Reuters.
The European Commission’s priority is to ensure that Ukrainian grain can reach the world market and it calls on all parties to extend the Black Sea deal, a European Union spokesperson in Brussels said on Thursday. .
“We are assisting the UN-Turkey led talks as needed,” the EU spokesperson said. “We are of course open to exploring all solutions that contribute to our goal, while continuing to ensure that Russia’s ability to wage war in Ukraine is hampered as much as possible.”
A key request from Moscow is the reconnection of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT. It was cut by the European Union in June 2022 following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
US, BRITISH AID
Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said last week that Moscow would not be happy with the alternative proposal because it would take “many months” to open a subsidiary and another three months to connect it to SWIFT. .
Russia has threatened to abandon the Black Sea grain deal because several requests to ship its own grain and fertilizer overseas have not been met. The last vessel traveling under the Black Sea deal is currently loading its cargo in the Ukrainian port of Odessa before Monday’s deadline.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday he had heard of no new proposals on the Black Sea grain deal, when asked about remarks by Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan who said that Putin had made suggestions.
The United Nations and Turkey negotiated the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Russia and Ukraine in July 2022 to help alleviate a global food crisis aggravated by Moscow’s invasion and blockade of Ukrainian ports.
To convince Russia to accept the Black Sea deal, a three-year memorandum of understanding was agreed at the same time under which UN officials agreed to help Russia route its exports of food and fertilizer to foreign markets.
While Russian food and fertilizer exports are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after the invasion of Ukraine, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have been a hindrance to shipments.
To circumvent the lack of access to SWIFT, UN officials asked US bank JPMorgan Chase & Co JPM.N to start processing certain Russian grain export payments with US government assurances.
The United Nations is also working with the African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) to create a platform to help process transactions for Russian grain and fertilizer exports to Africa, the senior official said. United Nations Trade to Reuters last month.
Britain has also “worked very closely with the City of London to enable a very complex payment system” for Russian grain, British Ambassador to the UN Barbara Woodward said.
(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Editing by Angus MacSwan)