U.S. Wants Black Sea Grain Initiative 'To Be Up And Running Again', State Dept Says

Washington D.C./06.09.23/Turan: The United States said on Tuesday that it wants the Black Sea Grain Initiative (BSGI), a Turkish-and-UN-brokered wartime agreement with Russia to ensure the safe passage of grain from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, "to be up and running again," as the State Department put it, TURAN's Washington correspondent reports.

"We know that [the BSGI] worked.., And we also are incredibly thankful for the UN and our Turkish partners for the role that they played previously in getting this deal together and the role that they continue to play to try and convince Russia to re-enter," State Department Principal Deputy Spokesperson Vedant Patel told a daily briefing.

When asked by TURAN whether the U.S. believed that the BSGI was revivable — although Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan's latest talks with Vlaidmir Putin did not result in a breakthrough — Patel said, "We have no reason to think that diplomacy is not possible to getting some of these done."

"It is deeply unhelpful for me to offer diplomatic play-by-plays from up here... So our viewpoint is that the Black Sea Grain Initiative was incredibly helpful; it was a good thing to the tune of tons of grain getting to the ports and markets that it needed to get to," he added.

Patel concluded: "We will continue to work with partners to try and get the Russian Federation to rejoin.  But we are also continuing to work with allies and partners to assess what other options may be available to get grain to the places that it needs to go."

Alex Raufoglu