The parties in the Istanbul talks on food exports from Ukraine through the Black Sea have reached substantive agreement related to the mechanisms of control, the system of coordination, and the questions of demining, UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has said.

"There was very substantive progress and I would say, a broad agreement, if you look at the present statement made by the Turkish Ministry of Defense that was already public – there was substantive agreement on many aspects, mainly the questions related to the mechanisms of control, related to the system of coordination, and relating to the questions of demining, in relation to many of the concrete, I would say, substantive aspects. But of course, this was a first meeting. The progress was extremely encouraging," he told a press briefing on Wednesday, July 13.

Guterres also expressed the hope that now the delegations would come back to their capitals and the next steps would allow the parties to come to a formal agreement.