Russia and the U.S will discuss reviving an agreement to ensure the security of merchant shipping in the Black Sea, the Kremlin said on Monday, noting that what Moscow saw as essential parts of an earlier agreement on the issue were never implemented.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the “Black Sea Initiative,” better known as the grain deal, was on the agenda of talks in Saudi Arabia between Russian and American officials on Monday.
He said US President Donald Trump had proposed discussing the Black Sea deal and that Putin had agreed to discuss it. “This is primarily about the safety of navigation,” Peskov said when asked what the Black Sea deal meant.
Allegations of non-compliance with previous agreement
“But if you remember the initiative in its previous form, last time they failed to fulfill a very large part of their obligations to our country. So that will also be on the agenda today.”
Turkey and the United Nations helped broker the so-called Black Sea Grain Initiative, a deal struck in July 2022 that allowed the safe export of nearly 33 million metric tons of Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea despite the war.
Russia withdrew from the deal in 2023, complaining that its own food and fertilizer exports faced serious obstacles, although Russia is not currently facing serious problems getting its grain to market via the Black Sea.
To convince Russia to agree to the deal, UN officials signed a three-year memorandum of understanding in July 2022. In that memorandum, they agreed to help Russia move its food and fertilizer exports to foreign markets.
Obstacles to Russian exports
Although Russian food and fertilizer exports are not subject to Western sanctions,
Moscow said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance pose a barrier to remittances.
Russia wanted to resume its ammonia exports and reconnect its state agricultural bank, Rosselkhozbank, to the SWIFT international payments system.
When asked about Trump's comments indicating progress on a possible deal for the
Peskov said Russia and the US understood the need to move towards an agreement to end the war in Ukraine. However, he added that they still needed to resolve many different aspects.
“There is indeed a common understanding here,” Peskov said. “In general, of course, we still need to resolve many different aspects related to the agreement.”
Source: Dmitry Antonov, Guy Faulconbridge and Andrew Osborn | Notícias Agrícolas
