(Reuters) – The Black Sea maritime security deal aims to bring Moscow back to predictable grain and fertiliser markets that would allow for profit and ensure global food security, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in remarks published late on Tuesday.
The United States reached separate deals on Tuesday with Ukraine and Russia to cease fighting in the Black Sea and pause attacks against energy targets, with Washington agreeing to push to lift some sanctions against Moscow.
“We want the grain and fertilizer market to be predictable, so that no one tries to ‘ward us off’ from it,” Lavrov told the Russian state Channel One television.
“Not only because we want … to make a legitimate profit in fair competition, but also because we are concerned about the food security situation in Africa and other countries of the Global South.”
If implemented, the deal could be the first significant step toward U.S. President Donald Trump’s goal to achieve a more encompassing ceasefire in the war in Ukraine that Russia started with its full-scale invasion three years ago.
Lavrov, a veteran Russian diplomat at the helm of the foreign ministry since 2004, said the optimism of U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff who said that truce could come soon does not take under consideration the European allies of Kyiv.
“He (Witkoff) significantly overestimates the elites of European countries, who want to ‘hang like a stone around the neck’ of (Ukraine’s President Volodymyr) Zelenskiy, so as not to allow him to ‘give in’,” Lavrov said.
“Zelenskiy himself does not want to ‘give in’.”
Lavrov praised Trump and his officials for wanting to repair mutual relations and said Moscow is in consensus with the U.S. on not allowing disagreements between the two largest nuclear powers to escalate into a confrontation.
But he said Moscow will remain vigilant in its dealings with the U.S.
“‘Trust, but verify’ – this is the great commandment of (Former U.S. President Ronald) Reagan,” Lavrov said. “We will not forget it.”
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne and Ronald Popeski in Winnipeg; Editing by Chris Reese and Lincoln Feast.)
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