Free grain from Russia for Africa will not help to end crisis – Italian Foreign Minister

Allowing Russia to supply grain to Africa for free is not the right way out of the crisis caused by Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea grain initiative.

Source: Antonio Tajani, Italian Foreign Minister, on Friday; European Pravda with reference to Ansa

"We are pushing for dialogue on the grain corridor to be maintained. We support Turkey's diplomatic action," Tajani said.

According to the foreign minister, the African peoples are the ones paying the biggest price for the suspension of the agreement.

"The path proposed by Putin, i.e. 'we will send you the grain for free' is not the right path. Then if we do not return to the agreement, grain prices will rise," the minister stressed.

Earlier, Putin promised to supply free grain to six African countries during the Russian-African summit in St Petersburg. He said that in the coming months, "the Russian Federation will supply 25,000-50,000 tons of grain to African countries for free and provide free delivery."

According to the Russian president, Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic and Eritrea will receive grain.

On 17 July, Russia announced the suspension of the grain agreement and threatened "risks" to parties that decided to continue the initiative without the participation of the Russian Federation. In addition, Moscow began large-scale attacks on the port infrastructure of Odesa and the Danube ports.

The US State Department warned that Russia could prepare a false flag operation in the Black Sea amid a series of attacks on port infrastructure in southern Ukraine. James Cleverly, UK Minister of Foreign Affairs, also warned about this.

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