Ankara, (UNI) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday that he plans to meet with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres during the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York to discuss the possible resumption of the grain deal.
“The resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative is a priority for the whole world. We are in close contact with the United Nations on this issue. As you already know, the UN General Assembly will be held this month. We will hold meetings there with Guterres, and we will also discuss these issues. I would like to reiterate that we appreciate and support the efforts of Secretary General Guterres,” Erdogan told reporters on his way back from Sochi.
The UN has proposed to create a mediation mechanism for paying for Russian food and works on insurance of Russian ships, Erdogan added.
“Due to sanctions, the British insurance company does not insure [Russian] ships. Due to the exclusion of Russian banks from the SWIFT system, money transfers are not carried out. Now, thanks to the constant work of Turkey, the United Nations has put an end to this process. Recently, on August 28, UN Secretary General Guterres wrote them a letter with a proposal to create an intermediary mechanism that is not a direct SWIFT, as the Russians wanted, but a derivative of SWIFT. They [the UN] also said that they are working on the issue of insurance,” the Turkish president said.
