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South Africa is working to persuade Russia to return to talks on a Ukraine grain-export deal that it pulled out of last month, nearly a year after it was reached.

“We are also working hard to persuade the Russian side to address the Black Sea grain deal and interacting with all the relevant parties to see whether we could find a solution to ensure an opening of the Black Sea initiative,” Foreign Minister Naledi Pandor said in Pretoria during talks with her Japanese counterpart, Yoshimasa Hayashi, on Tuesday.

Last week, Russia’s President Vladimir Putin defended his nation’s withdrawal from the grain deal at a summit with African leaders whose nations are feeling the impact of rising food prices stoked by Russia’s special military operation in Ukraine. South Africa was excluded from a promise of free grain that Putin made at the gathering to six African countries with strong ties with Moscow.

Hayashi told Pandor that Japan “deplores” Russia’s ending of the grain initiative and hopes to work toward its resumption, according to a statement from Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The two ministers affirmed the need for both countries to cooperate on food security in Africa, the ministry said.

Pandor also explained the outcome of the Russia-Africa summit, according to the statement. Hayashi is on a tour of African nations it sees as relatively friendly toward Russia, with Uganda and Ethiopia next on the agenda.

South Africa has adopted a non-aligned stance toward the war in Ukraine that has drawn criticism from some of its largest trading partners, including the US. -Bloomberg

Bloomberg