The West’s obligations regarding the grain deal should not be glossed over, and the Russians who honoured their part of the deal vilified

Grain is splattered along the edges as the bulk carrier Negmar Cicek is loaded with grain in the Black Sea port of Chornomorsk, Odessa region on March 24, 2023, to be sent to Yemen within program "Grain From Ukraine" - Grain shipments from Ukraine resumed March 23, 2023, after Russia quickly returned to a deal allowing their safe passage following international pressure as the G7 club of rich nations vowed not to let Russia inflict "starvation" on Ukrainians. Ukraine is one of the world's top producers and the Russian invasion had blocked 20 million tonnes of grain in its ports until the safe passage deal was agreed in July. (Photo by Sergii MUKAIELIANTS / AFP)

Published Aug 26, 2023

Criticism of Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal should not be skewed to project Russia in a negative light. Part of the deal was to minimise the impact of sanctions on the export of Russian food and fertiliser.

That part of the deal, according to Russia, has not been honoured by the West, and Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal must be seen in this context. As the saying goes, a deal is a deal.

We had a similar situation with the Iran nuclear deal and Minsk agreement in which the West failed to honour its side of an agreement. Iran was supposed to gain sanctions relief by accepting limitations on its nuclear programme.

The deal was ratified during the Obama administration, but the Trump administration unilaterally withdrew the US from the deal. The UK, France and Germany remained in the deal but failed to deliver on the sanctions relief stipulated in the deal, yet Iran was still expected to adhere to its part of the deal.

Concurrently, despite unilaterally exiting the deal, the US still wanted to hold Iran accountable to the conditions of the deal. This was not acceptable to Iran and it started to roll back the limitations on its nuclear programme.

The Minsk agreement sought to end the war between Donbas separatist groups and the Ukrainian army. Germany and France were guarantors of the agreement. Former Ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko, in June 2022, stated that they used the eight years between the Minsk agreement in 2014 and 2022 to create an army.

This was echoed by former German chancellor Angela Merkel and former French president Francois Hollande in December last year, who stated that the Minsk agreement served to buy time to rearm Ukraine. They had no intention of honouring the agreement.

The West’s obligations regarding the grain deal should not be glossed over, and the Russians who honoured their part of the deal vilified.

* Ghalied Geduldt, Maitland.

** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.

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