(WASHINGTON) The United States on Thursday welcomed an agreement between Russia and Ukraine on grain exports to be signed in Istanbul on Friday and urged Moscow to implement it, a State Department spokesman said.
Posted at 3:36 pm.
“We welcome the announcement of this agreement in principle, but what is important for us now is to hold Russia accountable for implementing this agreement and allowing Ukrainian grain to reach world markets,” Ned Price said.
“We shouldn’t have been in this situation in the first place. It was a deliberate decision by Russia to use food as a weapon,” he added.
Ned Price particularly praised the diplomatic efforts of UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkey, which has frequently clashed with the US in recent years over arms purchases to Syria and Russia.
A spokeswoman for the US Department of State indicated that Washington had been briefed on the details of the agreement.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, a major grain exporter, food prices have soared around the world, particularly affecting poorer countries.
The deal, negotiated over two months, aims to bring out about 20 million tonnes of grain stockpiled in Ukrainian silos, particularly in Odessa (south), via the Black Sea and facilitate its grain and fertilizer exports to Russia.
