Foreign Ministry: Latvia, Estonia and Belgium block 96,000 tons of Russian fertilizers

The authorities of Latvia, Estonia and Belgium continue to block 96,000 tons of Russian fertilizers in their ports, intended for donation to the poorest countries. About it reported The Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on its website.

The department recalled that back in September 2022, the Russian Federation came up with an initiative to transfer fertilizers to countries in need, and it was supported by the UN. Since then, only 20,000 tons of fertilizers have been delivered to Malawi and 34,000 tons to Kenya last spring. The shipment of a total of 112,000 tons of fertilizers to Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Sri Lanka is stalled despite the completion of all preparatory procedures.

These deliveries, the Foreign Ministry continued, face obstacles at every stage, including high taxes and storage fees with the practical impossibility of making these payments due to sanctions. This situation, Moscow believes, clearly illustrates the hypocrisy of Western countries that claim not to extend illegal unilateral sanctions to Russian fertilizers, but in fact block even humanitarian supplies.

“Over 96,000 tons of fertilizers still remain in the ports of Latvia, Estonia and Belgium, intended for transfer to countries in need,” the message says.

At the same time, Latvia accounts for 80% of retained Russian fertilizers, they noted.

“In this regard, the Russian side expects that in the coming period, countries that illegally retain our fertilizers will make all necessary efforts for their timely humanitarian shipment to the poorest countries,” the Foreign Ministry said.

In the spring and summer of 2022, Russian fertilizer producers faced restrictions in one of their key markets – the European one. Due to sanctions, the ports of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were actually closed to the transit of fertilizers from Russia. In October of the same year, the Foreign Ministry announced that Latvia, Estonia, Belgium and the Netherlands were blocking fertilizers that Russia was ready to transfer to the poorest countries. According to the ministry, companies were prevented from donating about 300,000 tons of products to the poorest countries. Then this possibility was discussed within the framework of the second part of the grain deal, from which Russia withdrew on July 17.

After leaving the agreement, Moscow expressed its intention to return to the agreement as soon as its conditions, spelled out in the second part of the grain agreement, which was not fulfilled, were fulfilled. Today, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said that Moscow does not see the West’s readiness to fulfill its conditions for resuming the grain deal.

On August 3, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said that if Moscow returns to the grain deal, Washington will “continue to do whatever is necessary” to export food. In response, Russian Presidential Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that the United States should facilitate the implementation of the grain deal, and not promise to “think about it.”