EU urges G20 pressure on Russia to restart grain deal

The European Union has called on G20 countries to push Russia to resume a deal allowing Ukraine grain exports through the Black Sea, a letter seen by AFP Thursday said.

EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell told G20 top diplomats that Russia's agricultural sector was the "main beneficiary" of Moscow's withdrawal from the UN-brokered agreement.

"Russia will further benefit from higher food prices and increase its own market share in the global grain market by severely limiting its main competitor's capacity to export," he wrote in the letter dated Monday.

He said Russia was now offering vulnerable developing nations discounted grain as it was "pretending to solve a problem it created itself".

"This is a cynical policy of deliberately using food as a weapon to create new dependencies by exacerbating economic vulnerabilities and global food insecurity," Borrell wrote.

The EU official said Russia could be persuaded to return to the deal "if the international community speaks with a clear and unified voice".

"I would like, therefore, to ask for your support in urging Russia to return to negotiations, as well as to refrain from targeting Ukraine's agricultural infrastructure," he said.

The EU -- and other key Western backers of Ukraine -- have been trying to convince G20 powers such as India and Brazil to tackle Russia over its decision to quit the grain deal.

The 27-nation bloc has been locked in what it calls a "battle of narratives" with Moscow to show developing nations the Kremlin is to blame for the global food price volatility.

Borrell said that while Russia and its invading forces were disrupting exports from Ukraine -- a major agricultural producer -- the EU was seeking to bolster other routes to markets.

He insisted that EU sanctions on Russia did not target exports of food and fertiliser to third countries and that the UN had come up with ways to ensure payments to Moscow could be processed.