WASHINGTON, September 16. /TASS/. The US administration is trying to ‘blur’ the true situation on global food markets, plagued by problems created by West’s mistakes, the Russian embassy in Washington said on Friday.
"The US administration once again attempts to ‘blur’ the real picture of what is happening on the world food markets. Accusations against Russia for alleged involvement in the deterioration of global food security and delivering damage to agricultural infrastructure in Ukraine, voiced today at the State Department’s briefing, are groundless," the embassy said in a statement.
"We have repeatedly explained in a reasoned manner that food problems are caused primarily by imbalances in the global economy, including systemic mistakes made by the authorities of Western countries. Sanctions against Russia have only spurred negative trends," the statement says.
According to Russian diplomats, the substance of the July 22 Istanbul food agreement "is also presented one-sidedly."
"We would like to remind that the restoration of grain exports from Ukrainian ports was substantiated by the West, including the United States, by the necessity to prevent hunger in the poorest countries. Now the Americans are stricken with sclerosis, and they stubbornly do not notice that most of the ships are unloaded in European countries (44%), but not in countries truly in need - Djibouti, Yemen, Kenya, Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan (8%)," the embassy said.
Moreover, the US Department of State "remains silent on the Memorandum of Understanding between the Russian Federation and the UN Secretariat on assistance in promoting Russian food and fertilizers on global markets," Russian diplomats continued.
"In such a way they are trying to hide the fact that because of sanctions there is no substantial progress with the advancement of Russian agricultural exports. For example, hundreds of thousands of tons of our fertilizers are literally stuck in EU countries. We offered to pass them to poor countries for free. But even such purely humanitarian issue cannot be resolved," the embassy statement reads.
"Russia is a responsible supplier and will continue in good faith to comply with its commitments under international contracts relating to exports of agricultural goods, energy resources, and other critical products. We call on the US side to stop its attempts to obstruct this process," the document reads.
A package of documents aimed at resolving the issue of food and fertilizer supplies to global markets was signed in Istanbul on July 22. Under a Russia-UN memorandum, the United Nations engaged in efforts to lift anti-Russian restrictions preventing the export of agricultural products and fertilizers. Another document created a mechanism to export grain from Ukraine-controlled Black Sea ports. The deal inked between Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN established a four-party coordination center whose representatives will inspect grain ships in order to prevent arms smuggling and false flag operations.
Meanwhile, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the Eastern Economic Forum last week that almost all the agricultural products shipped from Ukraine had gone to EU countries.