Russian Agriculture Minister Dmitry Patrushev said on Tuesday that Moscow has successfully shipped 200,000 tons of free grain to six African countries as part of President Vladimir Putin's promise from July last year.
The shipments included 50,000 tons of free grain each to Somalia and the Central African Republic along with 25,000 tons of free grain each to Mali, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, and Eritrea.
Russia Ships Free Grain to African Countries
The Russian president had promised to deliver free grain to the six African countries during a summit with African leaders in July last year. Soon after that event, Moscow pulled from a deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship grain from its Black Sea ports despite the war that Russia has been waging on its European neighbor.
The Black Sea grain initiative helped to lower the prices of grain on the global market. However, Russian President Putin argued that it was failing to get supplies to the countries in most urgent need, as per AOL.
In a statement, Patrushev said that after the Russia-Africa summit, they have maintained relations with African countries and built cooperation. He noted that as a result of these efforts, they were able to deliver a large volume of wheat to the countries relatively quickly.
The Russian agriculture minister also said that his country is expecting to export up to 70 million metric tons of grain in the 2023-2024 agricultural year. In the previous season, Moscow shipped 66 million tons which was worth roughly $16.5 billion, according to the Straits Timers.
The situation comes after Turkish President Tayyip Recep Erdogan discussed with Putin a new mechanism to allow Ukrainian grain exports through the Black Sea. The meeting was held during the Russian president's visit to Ankara earlier this month.
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Black Sea Grain Initiative
During an interview, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said that there are currently efforts to find "new methods" to transport Ukrainian grain to the world markets. He added that the previous grain initiative worked within a certain mechanism, adding that now it has been seen that there is a possibility of going with a different mechanism.
Ankara has been seeking to persuade Russia to return to the Black Sea grain deal after the agreement was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey. Kyiv said that negotiations were underway to revive the deal but Moscow said that there was no prospect of ever reinstating the agreement, said Reuters.
Erdogan and Putin were said to have discussed a variety of issues during their meeting, including the relationship between their two nations as well as bilateral trade and economic cooperation.
Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov added that the two world leaders also discussed regional issues as well as Ukraine. The trip marked the Russian president's first visit to a member state of the NATO military alliance following the start of his invasion of Kyiv.
This month, Turkey also ratified Stockholm's application to join NATO after Sweden applied to become a member at the same time as Finland. The two Nordic countries ended their tradition of military neutrality soon after the start of Russia's march on Ukraine, as per RUDAW.
