US State Secretary Antony Blinken said at a press briefing he is going to have a phone conversation with Sergey Lavrov, Russia’s Foreign Minister.
“In the coming days, I expect to speak with Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov for the first time since the war began. I plan to raise an issue that’s a top priority for us: the release of Americans Paul Whelan and Brittney Griner, who have been wrongfully detained and must be allowed to come home. We put a substantial proposal on the table weeks ago to facilitate their release. Our governments have communicated repeatedly and directly on that proposal. And I’ll use the conversation to follow up personally and, I hope, move us toward a resolution.
I’ll also raise the matter of the tentative deal on grain exports that Ukraine, Russia, Turkey, and the United Nations reached last week. We hope this deal will swiftly lead to Ukrainian grain being shipped again through the Black Sea and that Russia will follow through on its pledge to allow those ships to pass.
This has been the focus of the world’s attention for months, including a few weeks ago at the meeting of the G20 foreign ministers in Bali, where one foreign minister after another urged Foreign Minister Lavrov and Russia to stop blocking the grain. So this agreement represents a positive step forward.
That said, there’s a difference between a deal on paper and a deal in practice. Hundreds of millions of people around the world are waiting for these ships to set forth from Ukraine’s ports and for millions of tons of grain and other crops to reach world markets. If the Kremlin signed this deal to look reasonable to the world, without any intention of following through, we’ll know that soon enough” Blinken said.
“My call to Foreign Minister Lavrov will not be a negotiation about Ukraine. Any negotiation regarding Ukraine is for its government and people to determine. As we’ve said from the beginning, nothing about Ukraine without Ukraine”, stressed the US State Secretary.
Russian Foreign Ministry told RIA Novosti, they have not received official proposal from US State Department on the Blinken-Lavrov phone call.
