Turkey is working to extend the Initiative for the Safe Transportation of Grain and Food from Black Sea Ports and is making every effort to extend its validity by two years. This was stated by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reports Anadolu.
We continue work on the grain corridor. We are working on its continuation after July 17. We want an extension of at least three months. We are waiting for this and will make efforts to extend the term of the agreement by two years," Erdogan said during a joint press conference with the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyi on Friday, July 7.
He is nakedassured that all stakeholders understand the global responsibility of this initiative and promised to raise the topic of the grain agreement in a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
In turn, Volodymyr Zelenskyi emphasized that the whole world is interested in the work of the grain corridor, because the lives of other people on other continents, including Africa and Asia, depend on it.
The whole world is interested in the functioning of the grain corridor. It is very important. And it is very important that we start acting with our partners so that the life of the grain corridor, and therefore the lives of other people on other continents, including Africa, Asia, does not depend on the mood with which the Russian president woke up," Zelenskyy said, adding , that currently it is Russia that is blocking the Black Sea.
He noted that there should be various corridors in the Black Sea, including those that will allow the passage of vessels stuck in Ukrainian ports in Mykolaiv Oblast and Kherson Oblast from February 2022. The president indicated that for this it is necessary that Russia simply does not shoot at these vessels so that they can be released and unblocked.
In late June, Russia said it saw no reason to extend the "grain deal" beyond July 17, accusing the West of "outrageous" actions on the deal. At UN-mediated negotiations, Moscow proposed a plan that would allow a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank to make payments related to grain exports. In addition to restoring access to SWIFT, Russia is also seeking to restore supplies of agricultural machinery and spare parts, as well as lift restrictions on insurance and reinsurance.
In addition, Russian representatives in the Joint Coordination Center (JCC) completely stopped the registration of new vessels entering Ukrainian ports as part of the initiative for the safe transportation of agricultural products across the Black Sea from June 26.
The Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the UN, Serhiy Kyslytsia, stated at a meeting of the UN Security Council that Russia is pretending to have losses from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, although in fact it has doubled its grain exports.
The "Grain Initiative" made it possible to unblock the ports of Greater Odessa, which before the war were 80% gateways for agricultural exports, to support Ukrainian farmers, to increase the inflow of foreign exchange earnings to Ukraine, to stabilize world food prices, and to prevent a significant deterioration of the humanitarian situation in the states that are on the border famine, in particular Ethiopia, Somalia, Afghanistan.
Since the beginning of the "grain initiative" (from the beginning of August 2022), according to the UN, 1,002 ships have been sent from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea, which transported 32.8 million tons of agricultural products, including corn, to the countries of Africa, Asia and Europe - 16.8 million tons, wheat — 8.9 million tons, sunflower oil — 1.7 million tons.