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Senior Russian diplomat laments commercial nature of grain deal despite humanitarian goals

The conversation was initiated by the Turkish side on July 5, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted

MOSCOW, July 6. /TASS/. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin stressed the purely commercial nature of the Black Sea Initiative grain deal, which is far removed from the declared humanitarian goal of helping countries in need, in a telephone conversation with his Turkish colleague, Burak Akcapar, according to a statement released on the Russian Foreign Ministry’s website on Thursday.

"The sides shared views on issues concerning ensuring the implementation of the Istanbul ‘package’ of agreements dated July 22, 2022. The Russian side confirmed its fundamental assessments about the purely commercial nature of the Black Sea Initiative grain deal for supplying Ukrainian agricultural products, which is far removed from the initially declared humanitarian goal of providing help to African, Asian and Latin American countries in need, as well as the lack of any progress on [implementing] the Russia-UN memorandum on normalization of domestic [Russian] agricultural exports," the statement reads.

Moreover, the sides discussed "tasks pertaining to providing comprehensive international humanitarian assistance to Syria as the relevant UN Security Council Resolution 2672 will expire on July 10."

The conversation was initiated by the Turkish side on July 5, the Russian Foreign Ministry noted.

On July 22, 2022, a package of documents on the supply of food and fertilizers to the international market was signed in Istanbul. Initially, the agreements were concluded for 120 days, but in November of last year they were extended for the same period. On March 18, 2023, Russia announced a 60-day extension of the deal, warning that this would be enough time to evaluate the implementation of the memorandum signed with the UN. On May 18, the grain deal was extended for another two months until July 17.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said earlier that any further extension of the grain deal would be out of the question unless the Russian component of the Istanbul agreements was implemented, noting that only the Ukrainian grain supply component of the deal has been carried out to date.

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