The duration of the Black Sea initiative will be extended after May 18 for another 60 days. According to a source from the TASS state agency, the decision to extend the “grain deal” is probably the first will announce Turkish leader Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
“The deal, I think, will be extended for 60 days, but Russia may agree to this for the last time,” the source said.
A TASS source believes that the Turkish president will announce the decision to extend the Black Sea initiative after a telephone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin. The corresponding conversation, the source of the publication admitted, may take place “today or tomorrow.”
The interlocutor of the state agency described the very possibility of extending the so-called grain deal as a “gesture from Russia” – it is being undertaken by the Kremlin in the hope that the Russian requirements enshrined in the agreement will be taken into account and fulfilled.
The fact that the Russian president and his Turkish counterpart can discuss the results of negotiations on the “grain deal” by phone, reported the day before. A TASS source in Ankara also spoke about this.
The “grain deal” was concluded last summer by the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN. It provides for the export of Ukrainian food and fertilizers from three Black Sea ports and the unblocking of exports of agricultural products and fertilizers from the Russian Federation. The agreement has already been extended twice, in March of this year it was extended for 60 days, until May 18.
On May 11, the Russian Foreign Ministry announced that the Russian side was against expansion or an endless extension of the “grain deal”, for which a number of Western countries speak out.
