2023-05-10 15:39:29
Negotiations on the continuation of the grain agreement between representatives of Russia, Ukraine and Turkey have started in Turkey. The deputy defense ministers of the countries met on Wednesday for two-day consultations, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said, according to the state news agency Anadolu. The deal might expire on May 18 if Russia carries out its threat to withdraw.
After the start of its war of aggression, Russia had blocked the neighboring country’s Black Sea ports for months. Since Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain exporters, fears grew of a massive rise in food prices – and, as a result, a hunger crisis in the poorest countries. Last summer, the United Nations and Turkey brokered an end to the blockade and made the grain agreement possible. According to the UN, almost 30 million tons of agricultural goods have been exported since the start of the grain corridor. In 2022, more than half of the wheat requirement for the World Food Program of the United Nations came from Ukraine.
The Russian state news agency Tass quoted an anonymous source on Wednesday as saying: “There is information that the agreement will ultimately be extended beyond May 18.” Moscow will probably agree to the continuation because agreements on the export of Russian goods would also be laid down, it said. This might not initially be checked independently.
In fact, Russia has repeatedly complained in recent months that the so-called package character of the grain deal is allegedly not being sufficiently considered by Western countries: In return for the export of grain from Ukraine, the Kremlin wants sanctions to be eased on its own exports other things from fertilizer.
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