Discussions To Continue On Black Sea Grain Corridor As Deal Set To Expire

United Nations spokesperson Stephanie Dujarric has told reporters that discussions to maintain corridors for the safe exportation of grain and fertiliser will continue, after a two days of meetings between Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin and UN officials in Moscow concluded today.

• Dujarric said all discussion were "positive and constructive."
• The grain corridor agreement is set to expire next month and a renewal of the agreement is uncertain after Russian President Vladimir Putin made oblique hints that Moscow may scrap the deal speaking in Astana, Kazakhstan last week.
• Putin said: “If it turns out that humanitarian corridors are being used to commit terrorist acts, then, of course, this will call into question the functioning of this corridor.”
• UN Coordinator for the initiative, Amir Mahmoud Abdulla, said he was confident the deal will be extended when it comes up for renewal on November 19. “There’s nothing that gives me any reason to believe it would not be extended,. Everything I’ve heard would intimate that it will not only be extended but potentially expanded."