ST. PETERSBURG (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 29th July, 2023) African countries are grateful for Russia's offer of free grain supplies, South African President Cyril Ramaphosa said at the Russia-Africa summit.
Russian President Vladimir Putin held a meeting with the leaders of African countries in St. Petersburg on Friday. The talks were dedicated to the conflict in Ukraine.
Ramaphosa said on Friday night that the main goal of African delegations was not to come to St. Petersburg to ask for free grain supplies from Russia, but African countries were nonetheless grateful for Russia's offer to those in need.
Putin said earlier on Friday at the Russia-Africa summit that Russia was going to supply grain to African countries on a commercial basis as well as free of charge.
On July 18, the Black Sea Grain Initiative, commonly known as the grain deal, which provided for a humanitarian corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain over the past year expired, as Russia did not renew its participation in the deal. Moscow emphasized that the deal's component on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports had not been fulfilled.
The second Russia-Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum is taking place in the Russian city of St. Petersburg from July 27-28.
Chairman of the African Union Azali Assoumani said on Friday that African countries were very satisfied with the results of the Russia-Africa summit in St. Petersburg.
"We need to go further, we have capital, we are now exporting our raw materials, and then these transformed raw materials are returned to us and we buy them for a high price. We know that Russia can help us with this. (Russia) has demonstrated readiness and is already doing this in many countries... So I believe that we will succeed and we are very satisfied with the results of our meetings," Assoumani told reporters.
Sputnik is an official media partner of the Russia-Africa Summit and Economic and Humanitarian Forum.
