Russia Prepares 500 Thousand Tons Of Free Grains For Needed Parties, Exports To Interest Countries At NEW Import Prices

JAKARTA - Russia will continue its dialogue with the United Nations and Turkey on the future of the seed deal, although it is ready to supply grains to countries interested in reasonable prices in any case, the country's prime minister said.

"The Ukrainian side carried out a terrorist attack on Russian civilian ships and ships in the waters of Sevastopol Bay last weekend," Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said at a virtual meeting of the head of the SCO Council ( Shanghai Cooperation Organization) on Tuesday, reported by TASS November 2.

"Currently it is impossible to guarantee the security of the humanitarian corridors that have been created. And we have been forced to suspend participation in the grain agreement," he continued.

Nevertheless, continued PM Mishustin, Moscow will continue its "dialog with the United Nations and Turkey on relevant issues within the framework of the agreement signed in Istanbul".

"Despite the future of the seed deal, given this year's harvest, Russia is ready to provide up to 500,000 tons of free grains to countries with the most need, and deliver grains at reasonable prices to all interested countries," said PM Mishustin.

The Russian prime minister further said that the provision of global food security is one of the priorities of working together.

"We honestly carry out international contracts aimed at completing this strategic task," he said.

"It is important that SCO states account for more than a tenth of the global turnover of agricultural goods," added PM Mishustin.

"In eight months of this year, international trade in Russian agricultural and food products with organizational members rose nearly 25 percent to around $8.5 billion," he said, noting that the "expansion of cooperation on this line is highly relevant".

As previously reported, President Vladimir Putin emphasized that the freezing of participation in the grain export program through the Black Sea was a response to the drone strike against Moscow's fleet in Crimea which he accused Kyiv of.

Moscow said the withdrawal from the deal to allow the delivery of Ukraine's wheat to "infinite futures."

Meanwhile, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said corridors to export grains from the Ukrainian port needed a long-term way to maintain them reliably, while the world should give a firm response to any Russian attempts to disrupt them.

Russia and Ukraine are among the world's largest food exporters, with Russia's blockade on the delivery of Ukrainian grains leading to a global food crisis earlier this year.