United Nations (UN) Secretary-General António Guterres said on Thursday that he had sent a letter to Russia's chief diplomat, Serguei Lavrov, with a set of proposals to reinstate the Black Sea Grains Agreement.

"We put forward a set of concrete proposals in a letter I sent to the Russian foreign minister, (...) which will create the conditions for the renewal of the Black Sea initiative. We believe that this initiative makes a very important contribution to bringing food markets more into line with our food security objectives," Guterres told journalists at the UN headquarters in New York.

According to the UN leader, quoted by Lusa, "Russian requests" to reinstate the agreement have been taken into account, so the proposal presented could "be the basis for a renewal, but a renewal that must be stable".

On July 17, Moscow suspended the agreement to export grain across the Black Sea from Ukrainian ports, initially signed in July 2022 with the mediation of Turkey and the UN.