On Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov renewed his country’s conditions for returning to an agreement to export grain through the Black Sea.
Lavrov told reporters that Russia would return to the Black Sea grain supply agreement “on the same day” that Moscow’s conditions related to its grain and fertilizer exports to global markets are implemented.
Russia withdrew from the agreement in July, a year after it came into effect, brokered by the United Nations and Turkey, as it complained that its food and fertilizer exports faced obstacles and that a sufficient amount of Ukrainian grain did not reach the countries that needed it.
“When all necessary measures are implemented to remove obstacles to our grain and fertilizer exports, we will return on the same day to collective implementation of the Ukrainian part of the Black Sea Initiative,” Lavrov said in a press conference today, after attending the G20 summit in New Delhi.
Lavrov added that “no one has pledged” to reconnect the Russian Agricultural Bank to the global financial payments system “SWIFT,” noting that the bank’s unit in Luxembourg does not have a license to conduct banking operations and is planning to close.
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