ISTANBUL, July 27 (NNN-AGENCIES) — The United Nations and Turkey will open a joint centre with Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on Wednesday to coordinate the resumption of grain deliveries across the Black Sea.
Turkiye’s defence ministry said that the centre will be officially opened at a ceremony attended by Turkish Defence Minster Hulusi Akar.
Russia’s TASS state news agency said a Russian defence delegation had flown to Istanbul for the ceremony on Tuesday.
The joint command and control centre was agreed as part of a landmark deal signed by the warring parties with the UN and Turkiye in Istanbul on Friday.
Ukrainian officials said on Monday they hoped to send their first ships full of grain since Russia’s February invasion later this week.
The blockage of deliveries from two of the world’s biggest grain exporters has contributed to a spike in prices that has made food imports prohibitively expensive for some of the world’s poorest countries.
UN estimates say nearly 50 million people began to face “acute hunger” around the world as a direct consequence of the war.
Wheat prices fell sharply hours after the grain deal was signed.
But a Russian missile strike on Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Odessa on Saturday put the agreement under renewed doubt. — NNN-AGENCIES
