MOSCOW, March 5. /TASS/. Russia is ready to implement its part of the drain deal if its other participants implement their commitments on an equal basis, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday.
"If this agreement, which has obligations of the parties and not of only one of them and machinations of the other party, if this agreement is equal, we have always implemented and will implement our part of all the agreements," she said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel. "If it is year another double-dealing, if it is yet another attempt to focus on what they want and forget all the rest, and we have seen such examples even under the food deal, then sorry."
A package of documents geared to resolve the problem of food and fertilizer supplies on global markets was signed on July 22, 2022 in Istanbul for a term of 120 days. One of the agreements regulated grain exports from the Kiev-controlled ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny. An agreement between Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations provided for the establishment of a four-side coordination center to search ships carrying grain to prevent weapons smuggling and avoid provocations. Along with that, Russia and the United Nations signed a memorandum envisaging that the UN will take steps to lift various restrictions on exports of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers on global market. The grain deal was extended from 120 days more in November. Its expiry date is March 18.
On March 2, the Russian foreign ministry said that the deal was not working, with the West dodging the implementation of the Russia-related part of the agreements. According to the ministry, some 262,000 tons of fertilizers the Russian side planned to donate to the poorest countries are blocked in the ports of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Netherlands. The only batch of 20,000 tons has been dispatched to Malawi but "has not yet reached the consignee.".