At a meeting on Russia's war in Ukraine, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa called on Russian dictator Vladimir Putin to resume the grain deal.
He thanked the Russian president for his offer to send 25-50 thousand tons of grain to six African countries (which took part in the Russian-African summit) free of charge, but noted that it is necessary to "open" the Black Sea for food supplies.
"We proposed to implement the Black Sea Grain Initiative, we talked about the need to open the Black Sea, we said that we would like the Black Sea to be open to world markets. And we didn't come here to ask for any 'gifts' for the African continent," Ramaphosa said, as quoted by the Kremlin press service.
"Of course, we understand that out of generosity you have decided to provide grain free of charge to some African countries that are facing certain difficulties. We have great respect for this, we emphasize this. However, this is not our main goal here, it is not our main task to achieve any supplies of this nature," the South African president said.
Ukraine exported nearly 33 million tons of food last year under the grain deal, and the disappearance of such a volume of goods from the market as a result of Russia's breakdown of the agreement has already led to higher grain prices.
Background. As reported, the President of Zimbabwe has refused Putin's free grain.
It also became known that Putin is ignoring requests from Turkish President Recep Erdogan for a dialogue on Russia's return to the grain deal.