Turkey says approaching agreement on extending Black Sea grain deal

Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar on Friday (May 12) said that the parties to the Black Sea grain deal are approaching an agreement on extending it after two days of talks in Istanbul between Ukrainian, Russian, Turkish and UN officials.

Akar said in a statement, "We are heading toward an agreement on the extension of the grain deal." The deal is to expire on 18 May.

But Russia has it needs guarantees that its demands would be met by the deadline of May 18, otherwise, thedeal would expire.

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Cindy McCain, the executive director of the World Food Programme (WFP), told the BBC on Sunday that the Ukraine grain deal must be renewed otherwise it will become difficult to feed the world.

Moscow has been accused of exploiting global hunger to take advantage in the ongoing war against Kyiv as the United States and Britain recently asked Russia to extend again a deal to export grain from war-torn Ukraine.

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Russia exploiting hunger with grain deal delay

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters on Tuesday, "In recent days, Russia has once again returned to blocking ships from sailing to Ukraine's ports to pick up the grain, in a cynical action that directly results in less food getting to global markets and to human beings in Africa, the Middle East and around the world."

He added that the "world shouldn't need to remind Moscow every few weeks to stop using people's hunger as a weapon in their war against Ukraine."

On the other hand, British Secretary James Cleverly, speaking alongside Blinken, said Russia "should re-sign the Black Sea Green Initiative and do so immediately" and "it is completely wrong that Russia uses the hunger of some of the poorest people in the world to pursue leverage during this conflict".

The ongoing Russia-Ukraine war led to a food grain crisis globally in the past year — ever since it was launched on February 24. But the UN-brokered deal emerged as a ray of hope as it allowed Ukraine to export millions of tonnes of grain through the Black Sea but some of the ports were blocked due to invasion.

The blockade caused large quantities of Ukrainian grain to stay in Central European states due to logistical bottlenecks. It hit prices and sales for local farmers. Ukrainian grain is cheaper than that produced in the European Union.

This was one of the reasons why Poland and Hungary recently announced bans on grain and other food imports from Ukraine in order to protect their local agricultural sectors.

(With inputs from agencies)

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