Frederick J. Kenney Jr., UN Interim Coordinator at Joint Coordination Center for the Black Sea Initiative, said at a regular UN press conference via video link from Istanbul, Türkiye that the ships contain “more than 370,000 tons of grain and other food stocks”.
“Those ships ran aground in the three ports mentioned in the initiative when the war started.”
Grain deal
This initiative specifically allows the export of commercial food in significant volumes from three important Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea – Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny.
During the agreement signing ceremony in Istanbul, Türkiye, on July 22, Secretary General António Guterres called the initiative “a beacon of hope” in a world in dire need of it.
He also announced the creation of a Joint Coordination Center to oversee the implementation to be held in Istanbul and include representatives from Ukraine, Russia and Türkiye.
Authorized motion
Mr Kenney said that the initiative laid out detailed procedures for participating ships to follow and was “popularized to the shipping industry earlier this week”.
“Our priority is to free up berth space in those ports for new ships to come in and out,” he continued.
“We have also allowed the movement of four ships into the ports of the Ukrainian park so far for loading.”
The UN Interim Coordinator reminded that the agreement is expected to last for 120 days.
“We still have a lot of work ahead of us to ensure that the implementation of this initiative delivers real results to address food insecurity globally and stabilize wage markets,” he said. global reality.
However, Mr. Kenney added, “We got off to a great start“.
No discount is granted
UN Spokesperson Stéphane Dujarric clarify a related question was raised by a journalist yesterday about a possible discount for Türkiye’s purchase of Ukrainian grain.
“We did a lot of research, researched as much as we could, and I can tell you there are no discounts are incorporated in the Black Sea Grains Initiative deal was signed in Istanbul,” he said.
“Furthermore, we are not aware of any other arrangement that would warrant such a discount.”
Click here to view the full press conference.
