U.N. held talks in Russia on Monday on grain, fertilizer exports

By Michelle Nichols

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Top United Nations trade official Rebeca Grynspan met with Russian officials in Moscow on Monday for talks aimed at enabling the "unimpeded access" to global markets for grain and fertilizer from Russia and Ukraine, a U.N. spokesperson said.

U.N. aid chief Martin Griffiths also attended the meetings virtually, U.N. spokesperson Stephane Dujarric said.

U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres "continues in his determination to facilitate the unimpeded access to global markets for food products and fertilizers from both Ukraine and the Russian Federation," Dujarric said.

He added that Grynspan and Griffiths' consultations with Russia "are taking place with this goal in mind."

The United Nations has blamed Russia's war in Ukraine for worsening a global food crisis. Ukraine and Russia are both major grain exporters and Moscow is also a big supplier of fertilizer to the world.

U.N. officials are working to try and revive a deal that had allowed the safe Black Sea export of Ukraine grain.

Russia quit the pact in July - a year after it was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey - complaining that its own food and fertilizer exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after Russia's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine, Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have hindered shipments.

To convince Russia to agree to the Black Sea deal last year, U.N. officials said they would help facilitate Russian exports.

Guterres sent Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov a letter in August outlining measures that the United Nations could help to improve Russia's grain and fertilizer exports in a bid to convince Moscow to return to a deal.

Lavrov said late last month that Russia has not rejected the U.N. proposals, but described them as "simply not realistic."

(Reporting by Michelle Nichols; editing by Costas Pitas and Grant McCool)