U.S. welcomes Turkey's efforts to revive grain deal despite Russia's opposition

The U.S. Department of State hailed Turkey's efforts to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative despite the lack of major breakthroughs from President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's and President Vladimir Putin’s talks in Sochi on Monday.

This is reported by Ukrinform with reference to CNN.

“We welcome the efforts of Turkey and other countries to convince Russia to return to the deal. We are engaging with the United Nations and with Turkey, both of whom have worked very hard to make BSGI (Black Sea Grain Initiative) both possible and functional,” a State Department spokesperson said.

He added that Russia's decision to terminate its participation in the initiative "hurts communities vulnerable to food insecurity around the world."

Earlier, Turkey and the UN initiated the "grain agreement", which made it possible to export grain from Ukrainian ports in wartime conditions. The State Department thanked Turkey for "its important diplomatic and operational efforts" aimed at achieving a new agreement.

On Monday, negotiations between Erdogan and Putin on the renewal of the agreement took place in Russia, yielding no result.

Photo: Ministry of Infrastructure