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| President Vladimir Putin| Image REUTERS |
President Cyril Ramaphosa has rejected President Vladimir Putin's plea to reinstate the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the deal under which Russia lifted its blockade of Ukraine's Black Sea ports to enable Ukrainian grain to be shipped to world markets. Ramaphosa told Putin that African leaders did not come to Russia for food "donations" but to ask him to reinstate the grain deal, which he pulled out of on 17 July. Putin did not respond publicly, but in a later closed meeting with African leaders, he told them there were still conditions he wanted satisfied before the reinstatement of the grain initiative. These were the same conditions he had stated publicly, a source said.
The year-old Black Sea Grain Initiative supplied about 32.8 million tonnes of Ukrainian grain to the world, easing food prices and food insecurity, including in Africa. However, Putin has claimed that Western countries did not keep their side of the bargain by lifting all sanctions on the export of Russian grain and fertilisers. Last week, Putin told African leaders at the summit in St Petersburg: “Russia can well fill in the gap left by the withdrawal of the Ukrainian grain from the global market, either by selling its grain or by transferring it for free to the neediest countries in Africa, especially considering that this year we once again expect to have a record-high harvest.” He said that over the next three to four months, Russia would provide free of charge 25,000-50,000 tonnes of grain each to Burkina Faso, Zimbabwe, Mali, Somalia, the Central African Republic, and Eritrea.
Ramaphosa, as the spokesperson for the peace initiative of seven African presidents, was clearly unimpressed with this argument. At a meeting of those presidents with Putin — Azali Assoumani of Comoros, Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of Egypt, Denis Sassou-Nguesso of the Republic of the Congo, and Macky Sall of Senegal — Ramaphosa politely thanked Putin for the donations of grain to the six countries. But he added nonetheless, “We would like the Black Sea to be opened to the world market. And we are not coming here to plead for donations for the African continent… our main input here is not so much focused on giving and donating grain to the African continent… our main input here is not so much focused on giving and donating grain to the African continent… our main input here is not so much focused on giving and donating grain to the African continent… our main input here is not so much focused on giving and donating grain to the African continent…”.
At a press briefing after the summit, Putin explained that he would not be visiting South Africa for the BRICS Summit next month, because, “I do not think my visit to BRICS Summit is more important than me staying in Russia”.
Ramaphosa had recently persuaded Putin not to attend because South Africa would have been obliged to arrest him on a warrant issued by the International Criminal Court, which has charged him with the war crime of abducting Ukrainian children and deporting them to Russia.
