As well as Saudi Arabia and India, key participants in the project will include the United Arab Emirates and the European Union.
This project “has enormous potential but exactly how long it takes, I don’t know,” US said
The United States, Saudi Arabia and others will sign a pact at the G20 to explore building a major railway and port project to connect the Middle East with India and Europe, US officials said Saturday.
Jon Finer, US Deputy National Security Advisor, said a memorandum of understanding would be inked to “explore a shipping and rail transportation (project) that will enable the flow of commerce, energy and data from here in India across the Middle East to Europe”.
As well as Saudi Arabia and India, key participants in the project will include the United Arab Emirates and the European Union, Finer told reporters in New Delhi.
The agreement comes with Washington actively engaging with the kingdom, encouraging it to normalise ties with Israel.
“This has been the result of months of careful diplomacy, quiet, careful diplomacy, bilaterally and in multilateral settings,” Finer added.
This project “has enormous potential but exactly how long it takes, I don’t know,” Finer added.
The agreement to discuss the project could be among the most tangible outcomes of the summit, with G20 leaders divided over Russia’s war in Ukraine and gridlocked on finding an agreement to slash carbon emissions.
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his ministers on Tuesday he would only reach a trade agreement with India when it benefited the whole of Britain.
Rishi Sunak addressed his top team before travelling to the G20 summit later this week. (File)
London: Prime Minister Rishi Sunak told his ministers on Tuesday he would only reach a trade agreement with India when it benefited the whole of Britain, addressing his top team before travelling to the G20 summit in India later this week.
“He said negotiations around a free trade deal were progressing and that he would only agree an approach which worked for the whole UK,” his spokesperson told reporters.
India sees a British trade deal as crucial as it aims to become a bigger exporter, while the UK, keen to expand trade opportunities after leaving the European Union, would get wider access for its whisky, premium cars and legal services.
Still to be agreed are issues such as intellectual property rights, rules of origin and an investment treaty, and campaigners urged Britain not to demand any provisions that might undermine India’s generic drugs industry and make its products more expensive.
Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan said after talks with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday that it would soon be possible to revive the grain deal that the United Nations says helped to ease a food crisis by getting Ukrainian grain to market.
Russia quit the deal in July – a year after it was brokered by the United Nations and Turkey – complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced serious obstacles.
Erdogan, who previously played a significant role in convincing Putin to stick with the deal, and the United Nations are both trying to get Putin to return to the deal.
“As Turkey, we believe that we will reach a solution that will meet the expectations in a short time,” Erdogan said in the Black Sea resort of Sochi after his first face to face meeting with Putin since 2022.
Erdogan said that Russia’s expectations were well-known to all and that the shortcomings should be eliminated, adding that Turkey and the United Nations had worked on a new package of suggestions to ease Russian concerns.
Erdogan said Ukraine should soften its negotiating position against Russia in talks over reviving the deal and export more grain to Africa rather than Europe.
“Ukraine needs to especially soften its approaches in order for it to be possible for joint steps to be taken with Russia,” he told reporters.
Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba, speaking later on Ukrainian television, said Kyiv would not alter its stand, but would take note of Turkey’s account of the Sochi talks.
“We should not continue to be hostages to Russian blackmail, where Russia creates problems and then invites everyone to solve them,” Kuleba said.
“It is clear that we will stand in defence of all principled positions, especially regarding sanctions pressure on the Russian Federation.”
Standing beside Erdogan, Putin restated Russia’s position that it could return to the deal but only if the West stopped restricting Russian agricultural exports from reaching global markets. A separate memorandum agreed with the United Nations calls for conditions to facilitate Russia’s food and fertiliser exports.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan during a meeting in Sochi, Russia, September 4, 2023. Sputnik/Sergei Guneev/Pool via REUTERS Acquire Licensing Rights
REVIVING THE GRAIN DEAL
“We will be ready to consider the possibility of reviving the grain deal and I told Mr President about this again today – we will do this as soon as all the agreements on lifting restrictions on the export of Russian agricultural products are fully implemented,” Putin said.
He said Western claims that Russia had stoked a food crisis by suspending participation in the grain deal were incorrect as prices did not rise on its exit from the deal.
“There is no physical shortage of food,” Putin said.
While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions imposed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Russia exported record amounts of wheat last year, Moscow and agricultural exporters say restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have hindered shipments.
“The West continues to block the supply of grain and fertilisers from the Russian Federation to world markets,” Putin said, adding that the West had “cheated” Russia over the deal because rich countries got more than 70% of the grain exported under the deal.
Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s key agricultural producers, and major players in the wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seed and sunflower oil markets.
Putin said Russia expected a grain harvest of 130 million tonnes this year of which 60 million tonnes could be exported.
