WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 17th September, 2022) UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in an interview with RIA Novosti said the UN is working hard to remove obstacles to Russian exports of food and fertilizer and hopes his intense contacts with EU leaders will bring a positive change toward this goal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin earlier told the meeting with the permanent members of the Russian Security Council that only 3% of all supplies under the deal on the exports of grain from Ukrainian ports had been delivered to countries in need. At the same time, only EU countries can buy Russian fertilizers, while the delivery of fertilizers through the ports of European countries to the markets of Asia, Africa, and Latin America is still prohibited.
"In relation to the exports of Russian food and fertilizers that we consider now an absolutely essential instrument to address the market crunch in fertilizers, especially in the world... we are working hard to create the conditions to remove all the obstacles that still exists to those exports," Guterres said.
Guterres said he had intense contacts this week with EU leaders and hopes there will be a positive change in relation to the possibility of Russian grain and fertilizer circulating without impediments. He also said the UN received position information from Rotterdam and from the Finnish Harbor of Kotka and is currently discussing the issues with Antwerp and Hamburg. The UN, he added, is very much attentive to the problem and determined to solve it.
