BLACK SEA GRAIN DEAL - INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
News: G7
meeting calls for extending Ukraine’s Black Sea grain deal
What's in the news?
● The Group of Seven (G7) economic powers called on Sunday for the “extension, full implementation and expansion” of a critical deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea, the group’s agriculture ministers said in a communique.
Key takeaways:
● Brokered by the United
Nations and Turkey, the deal was signed in
Istanbul last July, allowing Ukraine to export more than 27 million tonnes of
grain from several of its Black Sea ports.
Black Sea Grain Deal:
● The
deal was to provide for a safe maritime
humanitarian corridor for Ukrainian exports (particularly for food grains)
from three of its key ports, namely,
Chornomorsk, Odesa and Yuzhny/Pivdennyi in the Black Sea.
● It
aims to tackle rising food prices due to
the geopolitical conflict.
Significance of the deal:
● Approximately
9.8 million tonnes of grains have been shipped so far since the deal was
brokered.
● People
hoarding the grain in the hope of selling it for a sizable profit owing to the
supply crunch were now obligated to sell.
● The
initiative has also been credited for having made a huge difference to the
global cost of living crisis.
Go back to basics:
Black Sea:
● The
famed water body is bound by Ukraine to the north and northwest, Russia and
Georgia to the east, Turkey to the south, and Bulgaria and Romania to the west.
● It
links to the Sea of Marmara through the Bosphorus
and then to the Aegean through the Dardanelles.