O first ship for shipping grain from Ukraine anchored safely off the coast of Turkey this Tuesday (2).
According to a senior official, Ankara expects shipments to leave Ukraine every day for as long as the export agreement is valid.
O first shipthe Razoni, carrying 26,527 tonnes of maize to Lebanon, anchored near the entrance to the Bosphorus from the Black Sea at around 15:00 (GMT), about 36 hours after departing the Ukrainian port of Odessa.
A delegation from the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul, where Russian, Ukrainian, Turkish and UN officials work, is to inspect the ship at 4 am on Wednesday, according to Turkey’s Defense Ministry.
The trip was made possible after Ankara and the United Nations brokered a grain and fertilizer export agreement between Russia and Ukraine last month — a rare diplomatic breakthrough in a conflict that has turned into a protracted war.
“We expect there will be more outbound movement tomorrow,” UN spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters in New York. “This is delicate, complex and complicated, but there are other moves planned.”
Dujarric said there were about 27 ships in the three Ukrainian ports covered by the export agreement that were “stuck in the port for a long time with cargo… with contracts signed, ready to be shipped”.
Exports from one of the world’s largest grain producers are intended to help alleviate a global food crisis.
“The plan is that a ship leave… every day,” the senior Turkish official told Reuters, referring to Odessa and the other two Ukrainian ports covered by the agreement. “If nothing goes wrong, exports will be done through a ship a day for a while.”
The official, who asked to remain anonymous, added that Razoni’s departure was delayed for a few days due to “technical issues” that are now fixed, and NATO member Turkey hopes the safe passage corridor will work well.
As part of the deal, the four parties are monitoring shipments and carrying out inspections of the JCC in Istanbul, which is cut off by the Bosphorus Strait, which links the Black Sea to world markets.
Additional reporting by Mehmet Emin Caliskan and Umit Bektas in Istanbul and Michelle Nichols in New York; text by Ece Toksabay
Source: CNN Brasil
I’m James Harper, a highly experienced and accomplished news writer for World Stock Market. I have been writing in the Politics section of the website for over five years, providing readers with up-to-date and insightful information about current events in politics. My work is widely read and respected by many industry professionals as well as laymen.
