Russian President Vladimir Putin promised on Monday to deliver cereals to Africa if the Ukrainian export agreement is not continued within two months, after the extension announced on Saturday by his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“If we finally decide not to extend this agreement for 60 days, then we are ready to deliver free from Russia all the volume that has been destined for the most needy countries in Africa in recent times,” he said in a speech to African Leaders in Moscow. .
And he added that Russia was “conscientiously complying with all its obligations, both in the supply of food, fertilizers, fuel and other critical products to the states of the continent, thus contributing to guaranteeing their food and energy security.”
He repeated, once again, his criticism of the Europeans, accusing them of hoarding the grain at the exit of the Ukrainian ports.
“Only three million tons of cereals were sent to Africa and 1.3 million to the poorest countries in Africa,” he said, compared to the “12 million tons shipped from Russia” to the continent.
The Russian president said in his speech that Moscow would “decide on its future participation” in the grain deal, which was extended until May 18 on Saturday, only if it “ensured a fair and full implementation” of it.
Early this Monday, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs had conditioned Moscow’s continuation of the agreement, among other things, “on the reconnection” of Rosselkhozbank to the Swift international payment system, “on the abolition of restrictions on insurance and reinsurance” of ships and “To the release of assets and foreign accounts of Russian companies associated with the production and transportation of food and fertilizers”.
“Without progress in meeting these requirements (…) our participation will be suspended,” warned the Russian ministry.
In its current form, “the agreement will continue to operate for the next two months within existing parameters, without any changes to the ports involved,” it said in the statement.
Source: TSF
