Trio of UN Chief, Erdogan, Zelensky to visit Black Sea Port of Odesa

The trio of United Nations Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky are set to visit the Black Sea Port of Odesa on Friday to discuss the grain shipment deal.

"At the invitation of President Volodymyr Zelensky[y], the secretary-general will be in Lviv on Thursday to attend a trilateral meeting with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and the Ukrainian leader," United Nations spokesman, Stephane Dujarric said on Tuesday, reported Al Jazeera. Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet Zelensky in Ukraine on Thursday, the spokesman said, adding that the trio will visit the Black Sea port of Odesa Friday, where grain exports have resumed under an UN-brokered deal.

The first shipment of grain left the Ukrainian port of Odesa on August 1.

Russia and Ukraine signed separate agreements in Istanbul in July with Turkey and the United Nations to resume grain shipments to international markets via the Black Sea.

The agreement has ended a wartime standoff that had threatened food security in several countries and cleared the way for exporting tons of Ukrainian grains.

The deal will enable Ukraine to export 22 million tons of grain and other agricultural products that have been stuck in Black Sea ports due to the war.

Ukraine is regarded as the "breadbasket of Europe" supplying 10 percent of the world's wheat, 12-17 percent of the world's maize and half of the world's sunflower oil. Twenty-five million tonnes of corn and wheat - the entire annual consumption of all the least developed countries.

The three leaders will reportedly discuss the grain shipment deal and attacks at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in...