WASHINGTON. Aug 9 (Interfax) - Attempts of the U.S. administration to bring Russia back to the Black Sea Grain Initiative by pressuring developing states prove that Washington seeks to dodge responsibility for systemic failures of the interconnected Istanbul agreements, Russian Ambassador to the United States Anatoly Antonov said.
"Washington's attempts to put pressure on developing countries in order to convince the Russian Federation to return to the grain deal are part of an information campaign to distort the real situation. Thus, they are trying to ditch the responsibility for systemic distortions in the work of the interconnected Istanbul food agreements. Shift the focus of the general public's attention from the fact that the export of grain from the territory of Ukraine did not correspond to the initially declared humanitarian goals," Antonov said. The press asked him to comment on the latest statements by U.S. officials on the need to reinstate the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
As a responsible state seeking to ease the burden on the poorest nations, Russia has repeatedly indicated, including at the summit level, that the door to the grain deal resumption stays open. All the U.S. and its allies need to do is fix the imbalances in the implementation of the package agricultural agreements, including obstacles to global exports of Russian agricultural products, Antonov said.