Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said that the prospects for extending the grain deal are unclear at the moment and depend on taking into account Russia's demands. He said this on Wednesday on NTV.
"There is no 100% guarantee of extending the grain deal right now, but serious work is being done and there are hopes of success. Our efforts and those of the UN are ongoing," he said. - "The basis of the problem that the deal was prolonged only for 60 days is the failure to meet Russia's requirements. This particularly concerns the issue of Rosselkhozbank's reconnection to the SWIFT system, guarantees for banks to make payments for food."
"Problems with exports from Russia continue. And these are serious issues. And the UN secretary-general is making very important and sincere efforts in this regard. The reconnection of Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT system is being discussed, but there are difficulties here as well. Western companies, from the USA and Great Britain, do not really want to work with it. We see this," Cavusoglu noted. In this regard, Turkey "offered to use Turkish banks as intermediaries."
"We told the UN that we would support such a solution if there were no threats against our banks in this case, if such guarantees were given. Now the technical details are being discussed. But this is a very complicated issue," the minister said. He noted that the Turkish side in this mechanism could involve Ziraat Bank.
July 22, 2022, in Istanbul, a package of documents on the supply of food and fertilizers to the international market was signed. Initially the agreements were concluded for 120 days, in November last year they were prolonged for the same period. On March 18 this year, Russia announced a 60-day extension of the deal, warning that this would be enough time to assess the implementation of the memorandum signed with the UN.
The Russian Foreign Ministry pointed out that a further decision on the extension of the deal would depend on the reconnection of Rosselkhozbank to the SWIFT system, the resumption of supplies of agricultural equipment, spare parts and service, the lifting of restrictions on insurance and reinsurance, the lifting of the ban on access to ports, the resumption of operation of the Tolyatti - Odessa ammonia pipeline, the unblocking of foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies involved in the production and transportation of food and fertilizers.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
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Based on materials from TASS