US Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink appealed to India to use its influence with Russia to ensure that grain exported from Ukraine is not blocked.
Brink’s statement comes as Russia threatened to withdraw from the Black Sea Grain Initiative, set to expire on 18 July. The deal had enabled the resumption of peaceful grain exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports amid the Ukraine War.
India’s Role
“India’s leaders have a unique voice to stand up for developing countries and encourage the continuation and the expansion of the Black Sea Grain Initiative to ensure people around the world can access food they desperately need,” Brink remarked in an online press conference organised for Indian journalists.
“While the war in Ukraine is happening in Europe, the global implications of the war should inspire leaders everywhere to look for solutions to bring the war to an end,” Brink said in response to a question of what the US is asking for specifically from India.
With the clock ticking on the Black Sea Grain Initiative deal’s extension this month, the U.S. envoy to #Ukraine appealed to India on Wednesday to use its influence with #Russia to ensure that grain exported from Ukraine isn’t blocked. | @suhasinih https://t.co/XJNNxwp49g
— The Hindu (@the_hindu) July 5, 2023
“I know that the people of India understand the importance of freedom, of sovereignty and territorial integrity, and India’s leaders have spoken about these bedrock principles,” she added.
“The threat posed by a neighbouring country with rising ambitions and no respect for territorial integrity is not only felt by Ukraine,” she said, making a veiled reference to India’s border issues with China.
Bridget highlighted that India has a major role to play in finding a solution to the Ukraine crisis.
Black Sea Grain Initiative
The Black Sea grain initiative is a deal brokered between Russia and Ukraine by Turkey and the UN last July.
The deal allows the export of grains, other food items, and fertilisers through a safe humanitarian corridor from the Ukrainian ports of Chornomorsk, Odesa, and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi to the rest of the world.
According to the UN, the Black Sea Grain initiative has allowed the export of more than 32 million metric tonnes of food to 45 countries on three continents.
Russia On The Fence About Extension
The Russian Foreign Ministry recently said that it has yet to decide whether to extend the grain deal. However, Moscow has said there are ‘no grounds to extend the agreement.’
“There is still time to fulfil that part of the agreement that concerns our country. Until now, this part has not been completed, and, accordingly, at the moment, unfortunately, there are no particular grounds for extending this deal,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov remarked.
Russia has claimed that the purpose of the deal was distorted, with food being transported to “well-fed countries” instead of Africa. Moscow has said that deal cannot be renewed till there is progress on the Russian part of the deal.
Russia's top diplomat Sergey Lavrov says Ukraine has turned the Black Sea grain deal into a commercial venture, meaning there's no longer any argument for Moscow to prolong it
— RT (@RT_com) July 1, 2023
Read more: https://t.co/LsSFY7JQGF pic.twitter.com/zEItgyekHh
Russia Rejects Proposals by EU, UN
Seeing Russia’s adamancy, the EU is considering a proposal to allow Russia’s state-owned agircultural bank, Rosselkhozbank, to set up a subsidiary that could connect to the SWIFT payment system.
Following the Ukraine conflict, select Russian banks were removed from Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunications (SWIFT), an international payment messaging system.
Moscow has claimed that severing the bank’s access to SWIFT has led the country to face many obstacles in the exports of food and fertilisers.
However, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova dismissed the EU’s idea as “deliberately unworkable.”
Russia also rejected a UN attempt to create an alternative payment channel between Rosselkhozbank and American bank JP Morgan.