By Enyichukwu Enemanna
Moscow on Monday reeled out conditions for accepting further extension of the agreement on the Black Sea grain deal with Ukraine, listing one of such conditions to include free supply of grains to African countries, a continent hit hard by the invasion of Ukraine by Russia in the last one year.
Russia’s foreign ministry, in a statement posted on its website on Monday, said Moscow had decided to limit the extension of the deal to 60 days over what it called “a lack of progress… on normalisation of domestic agricultural exports”.
The deal, allowing the safe export of grain from Ukrainian and Russian Black Sea ports, was renewed on Saturday for 60 days – half the intended period.
This came after Moscow said any further extension beyond May 18 would hinge on the removal of some some sanctions imposed by western countries.
Russia’s foreign ministry says renewal of the grain shipment deal in May would depend on certain conditions, including the restoration of access to the SWIFT financial messaging system for Russian state-owned agriculture-focused bank Rosselkhozbank, a resumption of farm machinery supplies, and the unblocking of foreign assets and accounts held by Russian agricultural companies.
Russian President, Vladimir Putin said that Moscow could send free grain to African countries if Kyiv and its western allies fail to meet those conditions.
Speaking at a Russia-Africa parliamentary conference in Moscow on Monday, Putin said grain exports under the Black Sea deal had unfairly prioritised “well-fed European markets” rather than African countries, and that the renewal of the deal on Russia’s terms was in the continent’s interests.
Putin said that if the deal were not renewed, Moscow could supply free grain to “especially needy African countries”, without providing further details.
So far, exports under the grain deal have been shipped to countries under commercial agreements.
The main destinations for grain shipped under the deal have been China, Spain and Turkey.
