(Reuters) – Minsk is ready to allow transit through Belarus of Ukrainian grain destined for Baltic Sea ports, if these ports grant it access for its own goods, Alexander Lukashenko was quoted by the agency as saying on Friday. Belta press.
Ukraine, one of the world’s leading grain exporters, has been unable to use its Black Sea ports for supplies since the start of the Russian invasion.
Exports from Ukraine via Belarus have been one of the options considered in wide-ranging UN-led talks, to boost global grain supplies as the major food crisis looms. Unblocking Ukrainian Black Sea ports is another option.
In a Friday phone call with UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres, Alexander Lukashenko said Belarus was ready to make its railway available. He offered to hold talks between Belarus, Ukraine and countries ready to provide access to their ports, Belta said.
“If conditions are created for the transit of Ukrainian grain, the ports that will handle it should also be able to load goods from Belarus,” the news agency added.
Belarus, one of the world’s top potash producers, is under severe sanctions that have disrupted its fertilizer exports through Baltic Sea ports.
Antonio Guterres, warned earlier this week that a deal to unblock commodity shipments from the region was still a long way off because “the fact that everything is linked makes the negotiation particularly complex”.
Moscow and Minsk have blamed Western sanctions for disrupting grain and fertilizer exports and causing the risk of a global food crisis.
(Reporting Reuters; French version Augustin Turpin, editing by Kate Entringer)
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