A deal allowing Ukraine to export crops from key ports via the Black Sea is to be extended, according to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres welcomed the Turkish-brokered agreement to extend a pact to allow shipments of grain from Ukraine to the global market for another two months.
Quoted by the official Anadolu News Agency, Erdogan said: "The Black Sea grain corridor agreement has been extended for two more months."
Earlier in the day, Turkish officials, quoted by Bloomberg, said that Russia agreed to stay in the pact for now.
Guterres said the extension of the Black Sea initiative was crucial to ensure the safe passage of ships carrying grain from Ukraine through the Black Sea even as fighting rages between Russian and Ukrainian troops on land.
"These agreements matter for global food security; Ukrainian and Russian products feed the world," Guterres said.
Obstacles
On Wednesday morning, hours before Erdogan's announcement, Moscow had threatened to withdraw from the deal if obstacles to shipments of its own agricultural products weren’t removed.
Quoted by Russia's Tass News Agency, the Russian foreign ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova said that "Moscow will not change its position regarding the compliance with all conditions of the grain deal," adding that the agreement’s implementation "is contingent on the safeguarding of Russia’s interests, and the decision-making process will be based on this premise."
Moscow will not change its position regarding the compliance with all conditions of the grain deal, the Russian Foreign Ministry’s official spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova, has told the Zvezda television channel:https://t.co/522acTJ7mF pic.twitter.com/TItDQ1mXkd
— TASS (@tassagency_en) May 17, 2023
On Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov had specified that Russian concerns over its own exports of food and fertilisers was being impacted by Western sanctions. "There are a lot of unanswered questions regarding our part of the deal ... now we have to make a decision," he said.
The conflict between Russia and Ukraine, both major grain exporters, triggered fears of a global food crisis when major Ukrainian ports were blocked by Moscow's warships.
Russian concerns
In July 2022, the agreement allowing Ukrainian grain exports to restart was signed, as well as a parallel memorandum on unhindered Russian food and fertiliser exports.
Russia has however repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the deal, claiming that obstacles remain to its own food exports.
Moscow says the problems stem from secondary effects of Western sanctions on shipping and insurance companies as well as banks.
During recent talks in Istanbul, Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar said: "We are heading toward an agreement on the extension of the grain deal."
Russia has laid out a list of conditions for it to agree to an extension, including allowing the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to reconnect to the Swift payment system.
Supplies of agricultural machinery, spare parts and services also have to be resumed, and obstacles to granting Russian vessels insurance and access to foreign ports must be lifted, Russia said.
Moscow's conditions also include the resumption of ammonia exports for fertilisers through a major pipeline that goes through Ukraine.
(with newswires)
