ROME, July 25. /TASS/. Talks on resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative are not being held at present, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin told reporters on Tuesday on the sidelines of the UN summit on food systems.

"Currently, negotiations on the grain deal resumption <…> are not being held. We articulated our position clearly. No renewal of the Black Sea Initiative took place after [July] 17. We objected to that. We objected with consideration of the experience in implementation of Istanbul agreements that we accumulated over the year," Vershinin said.

The way of implementing the deal in terms of grain exports, with the bulk of it consisting of feed and fodder grain, cannot be related to combating famine, the deputy minister said. He also reminded that the second part of the deal - the memorandum with the UN to facilitate unobstructed exports of food and grain from Russia - did not actually start working, Vershinin added.