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Updated March 6th, 2023 at 10:56 IST

Turkey pushing hard to extend Black Sea grain deal with Russia, says Turkish FM

"We are working hard for the smooth implementation and further extension of the Black Sea grain deal," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Avuşolu said.

Reported by: Vidit Baya
Turkey
Image: AP/Representative | Image:self
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Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said on Sunday that Turkey is making every effort to Russia and Ukraine extend a pact that safeguarded grain export over the Black Sea last year. On July 22, 2022, Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, and the United Nations agreed to establish a humanitarian maritime corridor for ships transporting food and fertiliser from Ukrainian Black Sea ports. The contract was extended in November and will now expire in less than two weeks, on March 18.

"We are working hard for the smooth implementation and further extension of the Black Sea grain deal," Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu said during a speech at the United Nations Conference on Least Developed Countries in Doha, Qatar. According to the Joint Co-ordination Centre in Turkey, which monitors the deal's execution, about 23 million tonnes of grain and other products had been shipped under the Black Sea Grain Initiative as of March 3.

Will implement our part if others do the same, says Russia on the grain deal

Russia has indicated that it is dissatisfied with certain components of the agreement. It has stated that it will only agree to renew the Black Sea grain agreement if the interests of its own agricultural farmers are considered. Russia is ready to implement its side of the grain deal provided the other partners do the same, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Sunday. 

"If this agreement, which has obligations of the parties and not of only one of them and machinations of the other party, if this agreement is equal, we have always implemented and will implement our part of all the agreements," she said in an interview with the Rossiya-1 television channel. 

On July 22, 2022, in Istanbul, a set of agreements aimed at resolving the problem of food and fertiliser supply on world markets was signed for a period of 120 days. Grain shipments from the Kyiv-controlled ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny were governed by one of the accords.

Russia says their shipements have 'not yet reached the consignee' 

An agreement reached by Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, and the United Nations called for the installation of a four-way co-ordination centre to examine grain-carrying ships in order to prevent weapons smuggling and avoid provocations. In addition, Russia and the United Nations inked a pact stating that the UN will take efforts to remove various limitations on Russian agricultural goods and fertilisers exports to the worldwide market. On March 2, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that the agreement was not performing, blaming the West for delaying execution of the Russia-related provisions.

According to the ministry, the Russian side's intended donation of 262,000 tonnes of fertiliser to the poorest nations has been halted in the ports of Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, and the Netherlands. The lone batch of 20,000 tonnes has been shipped to Malawi but "has not yet reached the consignee", as reported by TASS. 

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Published March 6th, 2023 at 10:56 IST

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