France and Romania will sign an agreement on Monday to facilitate the export of cereals from Ukraine by land, the French Minister Delegate for Transport announced on Sunday. “Tomorrow (Monday) I will sign an agreement with Romania to allow Ukraine to evacuate even more cereals,” said Clément Beaune, guest of the “Political Questions” program on France Inter radio.
These cereals will go “to Europe and the developing countries, especially in the Mediterranean, which need them for their food and almost for their survival,” added the minister.
The announcement comes two days after a Kremlin statement that Russian President Vladimir Putin plans to talk with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan about a deal allowing Ukraine to export its grain, which has been increasingly criticized by Moscow.
Unlock wheat exports
This agreement, concluded on July 22 in Istanbul, made it possible to unblock Ukraine’s exports of wheat and corn, hitherto hampered by the Russian military offensive, raising fears of a food crisis.
But Russia says its own food and fertilizer exports continue to suffer from Western sanctions against Moscow for its military intervention. On Wednesday, the Russian leader said that Ukrainian exports went mainly to Europe and not to poor countries.
“It is part of Russian history, but it is not true”, assured Clément Beaune: “Vladimir Putin said that only 3% of re-exported cereals went to developing countries, that is much more than that, it is more than a third” . According to the minister, the measures taken by the Europeans made it possible to “recover almost the levels of cereal exports that Ukraine had before the war, finding land routes.”
Source: BFM TV
