Senior Russian diplomat explains to Turkish ambassador why grain deal was terminated

The lack of progress on the Russian part of the grain deal was one of the key reasons why it was terminated on Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin said on Wednesday at a meeting with Turkish Ambassador to Russia Mehmet Samsar.

“The Russian side once again stressed that the lack of progress in the implementation of the Russia-UN memorandum was one of the key reasons behind our principled decision to terminate the Black Sea Initiative on exporting Ukrainian food after its expiration on July 17,” the Russian foreign ministry said.

“The sides reiterated Russia and Turkey’s commitment to continue coordinated efforts in the interests of ensuring global food security, paying special attention to the assistance to the poorest countries in Africa,” it said.

According to the ministry, the meeting was held in furtherance of Tuesday’s telephone talks between Russian and Turkish Foreign Ministers, Sergey Lavrov and Hakan Fidan.

A package of documents geared to resolve the problem of food and fertilizer supplies on global markets was signed on July 22, 2022 in Istanbul and extended several times since then before ultimately expiring on July 17.

Russia refused to extend it again because the part of the deal envisaging the removal of obstacles for Russian agricultural exports has never been implemented.

Apart from that, Moscow has repeatedly stressed that the bulk of grain that was meant to be supplied to the poorest counties was shipped to Western countries. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia is ready to resurrect the deal but only after its part related to obligations to Moscow is fulfilled. (BSS/TASS)