MOSCOW. Aug 4 (Interfax) - The Kremlin's website has published a joint statement by Russian President Vladimir Putin and leaders of the African peace initiative for Ukraine released after their meeting in St. Petersburg.
Putin and the leaders of seven countries representing the African peace initiative held their first meeting on June 17 and continued to discuss the plan in St. Petersburg on July 28.
At the end of the St. Petersburg meeting, "the leaders recognized progress achieved since then on proposals they discussed at the first meeting on June 17, 2023, on humanitarian issues, in particular, related to the rights of children in areas of armed activities and prisoner exchanges between Russia and Ukraine, and agreed that humanitarian efforts would continue to bring further results," the statement said.
"The leaders called for specific steps to remove obstacles to Russian grain and fertilizer exports, thus allowing the resumption of the full implementation of the Black Sea package initiative of the United Nations Secretary-General as endorsed on July 22, 2022, in Istanbul," it said.
The statement also said that the meeting participants "called upon the United Nations to take necessary action in order to release 200,000 tonnes of Russian fertilizer blocked in European Union seaports for immediate and free delivery to African countries."
The document said that the dialogue on the African peace initiative would continue "so that a door to peace can be opened."
The joint statement was published in South Africa on Thursday.