Erdogan says the grain deal in the Black Sea has been extended for two months

[ad_1]

Erdogan announces the extension of the televised speech for two months

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) – Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday that a grain deal in Ukraine’s Black Sea region had been extended for another two months, a day before Russia could pull out of the deal due to obstacles to its grain and fertilizer exports.

The flow of ships through the passage has stopped for the past few days, and it looks like the deal will expire on Thursday.

Earlier on Wednesday, the last remaining ship registered to travel through the corridor left a Ukrainian port.

UN data showed that DSM Capella left the Ukrainian port of Chornomorsk, carrying 30,000 tons of corn and was on its way to Turkey.

“The Black Sea grain corridor agreement was extended by two months with Turkey’s efforts,” Erdogan said in a televised address, also thanking the Russian and Ukrainian leaders and UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres for their assistance.

A spokeswoman for the Russian Foreign Ministry said it would comment later on the reported extension.

The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea agreement for an initial 120 days in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis exacerbated by Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the world’s largest grain exporters.

Moscow agreed to extend the Black Sea agreement for another 120 days in November, but agreed in March to extend it by 60 days – until May 18 – unless a list of demands on its agricultural exports were met.

‘open questions’

To convince Russia in July to allow the export of grain from the Black Sea, the UN at the same time agreed to help Moscow with its agricultural shipments for three years.

Ships are seen waiting for inspection under the United Nations’ Black Sea Grains Initiative at the southern anchorage of the Bosphorus Strait in Istanbul, Turkey, December 11, 2022. REUTERS/Yuruk Isik // File Photo

“There are still many open questions about our share of the deal. Now a decision has to be made,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday.

Asked on Wednesday how far the talks were progressing, Peskov told a news briefing that he would not get into “hypothetical discussions” about what Russia would do if the grain deal fell through.

Senior officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations met in Istanbul last week to discuss the Black Sea Agreement.

Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said last week he believed the deal could be extended for at least another two months.

While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have impeded shipments.

The United States rejected Russia’s complaints. “They are exporting grain and fertilizer at the same levels, if not higher, than before the full invasion,” US Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said last week.

Officials from Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the United Nations form a Joint Coordination Center (JCC) in Istanbul, which implements the Black Sea export deal. They authorize and inspect ships. The JCC has not authorized any new vessels since May 4.

Authorized vessels are screened by JCC officials near Turkey before traveling to a Ukrainian Black Sea port via a humanitarian sea corridor to collect their cargo and return to Turkish waters for a final inspection.

And in an excerpt from a letter seen by Reuters last month, Russia told its JCC counterparts that it would not agree to any new ships participating in the Black Sea deal unless the transits took place by May 18 – “the expected date … termination”.

It said this was to “avoid business losses and prevent potential safety risks” after May 18.

About 30.3 million tons of grain and food were exported from Ukraine under the Black Sea Agreement, including 625,000 tons on WFP ships for relief operations in Afghanistan, Ethiopia, Kenya, Somalia and Yemen.

Reporting by Michelle Nichols; Additional reporting by David Leungren. Editing by Grant McCall

Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

[ad_2]