The United Nations (UN) has proposed a new plan to revive the Black Sea grain deal that includes reconnecting Russian agricultural lender Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT interbank messaging system, according to Türkiye’s Anadolu news agency. This plan, formulated with Turkish mediation, also includes unblocking the frozen assets of Russian fertilizer producers in the European Union (EU). Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan believes that these proposals could provide a suitable basis for reviving the deal.
However, there are doubts about whether these new proposals will be successful. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova expressed skepticism, stating on her Telegram channel that these proposals had been implied before but had never worked. She suggested that the plan simply recycles previous ideas that have failed to produce any positive results.
Earlier in the week, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov containing a set of concrete proposals to restart the grain deal. While Guterres did not provide details about the proposals, he mentioned that they aimed to facilitate the access of Russian food and fertilizers to global markets at reasonable prices. However, a Russian diplomat close to Lavrov dismissed Guterres’ letter, stating that there were no new revelations in it and that it simply summarized previous unsuccessful UN ideas.
The Black Sea grain deal was terminated by Russia in mid-July. The deal, brokered by the UN and Turkey in the previous year, was designed to facilitate the delivery of Ukrainian grain to global markets during the military conflict with Russia. It was also intended to help lift Western sanctions that were hindering Russia’s agricultural exports. However, Russia felt that the second part of the deal had not been fulfilled and decided to withdraw, despite repeated warnings.
Turkey has been attempting to revive the agreement for weeks, arguing that it could serve as a basis for a truce or even a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are scheduled to discuss the grain deal further during their meeting in the Russian city of Sochi on September 4.
The outcome of these discussions and the implementation of the UN’s proposed plan remains uncertain. However, the hope is that the revival of the Black Sea grain deal could contribute to easing tensions between Russia and Ukraine and open up new opportunities for agricultural trade in the region.
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