Russia working with partners on alternatives to grain deal — Ambassador to Turkey

Russian Politics & Diplomacy August 16, 2023, 13:35

Alexey Yerkhov noted that Russia made a colossal contribution to ensuring global food security

ANKARA, August 16. /TASS/. Russia is working with its partners on alternatives to the Black Sea Grain Initiative to deliver food to countries in need. Russian Ambassador to Turkey Alexey Yerkhov announced this in an interview with the IHA agency.

"The Black Sea Initiative is by no means a cure-all for meeting the food needs of African and other countries, there are alternatives, and they are being actively explored in contacts with our partners," the ambassador said.

He also noted that "it is Russia that makes a colossal contribution to ensuring global food security," and "after fulfilling the requirements of the Russian Federation, it will be possible to talk about the resumption of the Black Sea initiative."

"As our president [Vladimir Putin] has stated, if our legitimate demands for unimpeded access of Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to the world market are met, it will probably be possible to talk about the resumption of the Black Sea initiative," Yerkhov said.

He added that Russia "is always ready to communicate with Turkish partners, in particular on this issue." The ambassador noted that "Ukraine's share in the world wheat market is no more than 5%, while Russia's is 20%."

Touching upon the topic of reconnecting the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT payment system, he noted that "the UN offered some kind of half-way solution for making payments." "Meanwhile, there are no alternatives to the direct reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank to SWIFT. All palliative measures are simply not feasible in practice and are designed only to create the appearance of work," the ambassador said.

On July 17, Russia refused to continue participating in the grain deal concluded a year ago, which provided for the safe export of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea and the creation of conditions for the export of agricultural products and fertilizers from Russia, since other countries did not fulfill their obligations in that part of the agreements that concerned the supply of Russian products to world market.

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