India will not join Ukraine grain deal: MEA
30 Dec 2022 13:30:51
New Delhi, Dec 30: India currently has no plans of joining the Ukraine grain corridor though it has supplied grains to several countries affected by a spike in food prices, external affairs ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said on Thursday.
Asked about the possibility of India joining the Ukraine grain corridor at a weekly media briefing, Bagchi said: “We are aware of this, but we have been extending assistance to fellow countries from the [Global South] bilaterally. I don’t have any clarity whether we will join [the grain corridor] , probably not, because our focus has been on bilateral South-South mechanisms.”
He added, “As of now, I have no intimation that we are looking to join this initiative.” The grain corridor, formally known as the Black Sea Grain Initiative, was brokered by the UN to get around the Russian blockade of Ukrainian ports that had stopped grain exports. An agreement signed on July 27 in Istanbul, Turkey, paved the way for the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports and helped stabilize spiraling food prices worldwide. A Joint Coordination Centre, with representatives from Ukraine, Russia, and Turkey hosted in Istanbul, monitors the agreement's implementation. However, Bagchi said India’s focus is on extending bilateral assistance, including through grain supplies, to countries affected by food insecurity. “We have extended such assistance to various countries, in Africa particularly but in other places also, in the last few months,” he said.
Bagchi also said that India had not received any request from Ukraine for the supply of electricity-generating equipment, though it has been extending humanitarian assistance to the country. The humanitarian aid issue also came up in a recent phone conversation between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.