"If everything remains as it is, and apparently it will, then it will be necessary to proceed from the fact that it [the deal] is no longer functioning," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a visit to Nairobi when asked if the Black Sea deal should be extended again, Reuters reported.
The United Nations and Turkey brokered the Black Sea deal for an initial 120 days in July last year to help tackle a global food crisis that has been aggravated by Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, one of the world's leading grain exporters.
Russia has repeatedly warned it will allow the deal to expire because of obstacles to its own exports of grain and fertilizer caused by Western sanctions, but on May 17 Moscow agreed to extend for two more months.
Lavrov, whose visit to Kenya is the first step of a tour of Africa, said the United Nations-Russia memorandum had not been fulfilled "at all". The UN-Russia agreement was reached at the same time as the Black Sea deal.
While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions, Moscow says they are hampered by restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance.
Lavrov, who has visited the African continent at least three times this year, said that less than 3% of the 30 million tons of grain exported under the Black Sea deal had reached the world's poorest countries.
He said that Russia had agreed to give away around 300,000 tons of Russian fertilizer stuck in European ports.
SKH/PR
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