New Delhi: India on Thursday hoped that there will be an “early resolution” to resume the Black Sea grain deal, which is now defunct after Russia suspended its participation.
Earlier on Monday, Russia announced that it was quitting the arrangement that allowed Ukrainian food and fertiliser to be exported from three Black Sea ports to Istanbul. This deal was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey less than a year ago.
At the weekly briefing on Friday, the Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson said that India had previously welcomed the signing and subsequent extensions to the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
“We have supported the efforts of the UN Secretary General in continuing this Black Sea Grain Initiative…and I know that on 20th it was discontinued by the Russian side. We hope for an early resolution to the present impasse,” he said.
Since the agreement had to be renewed every 60 days, it has been extended three times, with the most recent one in May.
Russia had withdrawn from the deal even though the United Nations had proposed to President Vladimir Putin that they would restore access for the subsidiary of a Russian bank to the SWIFT international payment system in exchange for an extension.
The UN Secretary General had said that the lapse of the deal which facilitated the export of more than 30 million tonnes of Ukrainian food grains “will strike a blow to people in need everywhere”.
Earlier in the day, the Ukrainian embassy in India had issued a press note calling on all “UN Member States to firmly demand that Russia resume its participation in the deal and stop its hunger games”.
The Russian foreign ministry’s announcement of withdrawal had claimed that several provisions of the Black Sea grain agreement had not been fulfilled. “We are forced to state that none of the five systematic objectives stipulated in the Russia-UN Memorandum has been accomplished,” said the Russian statement.
Russia had also mentioned the destruction of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline which Moscow had hoped to use to transport Russian ammonia exports to the Ukrainian port of Odesa. Moscow has accused Kyiv of being behind the blast that damaged the pipeline and accused the UN of turning a blind eye.