Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu has announced the necessity to further implement the Black Sea grain initiative and take efforts on lifting the existing restrictions for Russian grain exports, TASS reports.
"It is necessary and important to make sure that the grain deal is implemented further on. We welcome the UN’s efforts and engage in such talks ourselves on lifting the existing obstacles for Russian food in the context of the deal. We acknowledge the legitimacy of Russia’s demands to lift those restrictions," the Turkish minister said at a joint press conference with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov on Friday.
A number of obstacles and restrictions within the grain deal persist for Russia, he noted. "Earlier, agreements were reached by the Russian Federation and the UN on bringing Russian fertilizers and products to the markets. Partially those agreements are being implemented. However, we see that, for example, in the area of insuring Russian vessels there are problems and restrictions. They cannot gain insurance. Moreover, there are difficulties with bank servicing of deals on Russian grain supply as many Russian banks have been cut off from the SWIFT system," the Turkish minister said.
Agreements on the export of food from Ukraine were concluded on July 22, 2022, for 120 days and extended in November for the same period. One of the agreements regulates the order of grain supplies from the Kiev-controlled ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Moreover, a memorandum was inked by Russia and the UN on lifting restrictions on export of Russian agriculture products and fertilizers to global markets. Moscow notes that the second part of the agreement is not implemented. On March 18, Russia announced an extension of the deal for 60 days, warning that such a period would be sufficient for estimating execution of the memorandum signed with the UN.
