UN chief says he sent letter to Russia's Lavrov to revive grain deal

By Iclal Turan

WASHINGTON (AA) - UN chief Antonio Guterres said Thursday he sent a letter to Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov that presented a "set of concrete proposals" that allows the creation of conditions for the renewal of the Black Sea grain initiative.

"We have some concrete solutions for the concerns allowing for an effective or more effective access of Russian food and fertilizers to global markets at adequate prices," Guterres told reporters during a news conference at the UN headquarters in New York.

"We believe that the Black Sea initiative has given a very important contribution to make the food markets more adequate to our objectives of food security," he said, adding the deal brought prices down and created conditions for access to global markets of many countries.

"We believe it would be extremely important to renew it. And at the same time, we took into concern the Russian requests, and I believe we presented a proposal that could be the basis for renewal," he said.

But Guterres stressed that renewal "must be stable."

"We cannot have a Black Sea initiative that moves from crisis to crisis from suspension to suspension. We need to have something that works and that works to the benefit of everybody," he said.