The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, wanted to reassure himself this Sunday in front of his Arab partners in Cairo after the agreement on “safe corridors” to export cereals from Ukraine and Russia was supposed to ward off the specter of hunger, in Africa in particular. .
“We have confirmed the commitment of Russian exporters of grain products to fulfill all their obligations,” Sergey Lavrov said during a press conference with his Egyptian counterpart Sameh Shukri.
“President Vladimir Putin also underlined this during a recent telephone conversation with Egyptian President al-Sisi,” continued Sergei Lavrov, who will be in Uganda, Ethiopia and the Congo this week.
The agreement signed in Istanbul between Moscow and Kyiv, under the auspices of the UN, provides for “safe corridors” for the movement of merchant ships in the Black Sea.
“The crisis has been aggravated by Western sanctions”
It should allow the export of 20 to 25 million tons of cereals blocked in Ukraine and facilitate Russian agricultural exports, thus reducing the risk of a food crisis in the world where, according to the UN, 345 million people suffer from acute food insecurity. .
Russia has obtained assurances that Western sanctions will not apply directly or indirectly to its exports of agricultural products and fertilizers.
“The so-called food crisis, which is always unashamedly attributed to Russia, is a false story,” he hammered out later on Sunday before representatives of the 22 states of the Arab League, who sit in Cairo. “As if the food crisis started the day we launched our special military operation in Ukraine.”
For him, “the crisis has been aggravated by the illegal Western sanctions against Russia”
Dependent on Russian grain or weapons, most Arab capitals have so far not taken a stand on the conflict in Ukraine, eager to save Moscow without alienating the United States, which has taken up Kyiv’s cause.
Source: BFM TV
