The United States has agreed to help Russia boost its agricultural and fertiliser exports to the world market in exchange for a maritime security deal in the Black Sea.
The White House, the Kremlin and Ukraine announced the deal on Tuesday after teams from the US and Russia met in Saudi Arabia to carve out a pathway towards peace in Ukraine.
These negotiations came amid the Trump administration’s push to end the war in Ukraine that has dragged on since 2022. President Donald Trump shifted US policy on Ukraine by proactively engaging with Moscow and accepting some of its biggest demands, including ruling out Ukraine’s NATO membership.
Here is what the latest deal is about:
What is the Black Sea deal about?
A statement released by the White House on Tuesday said Ukraine and Russia had agreed to stop the use of force and the military use of commercial vessels in the Black Sea.
The White House also issued an almost identical statement, suggesting that the US and Ukraine had agreed to these terms.
The Kremlin issued a statement, adding that the US and Russia would organise “appropriate control measures through inspection of such vessels”, without specifying what these measures would be.
In return, the US will “help restore Russia’s access to the world market for agricultural and fertilizer exports, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions”, the White House statement said.
But the Kremlin statement was more specific in terms of Russia’s demands: it added that the pause on fighting in the Black Sea would come into force only after sanctions are lifted from the Russian agricultural bank, Rosselkhozbank, alongside other financial organisations which work with international food trade, including that of fish products and fertilisers. The Kremlin statement added that these organisations must be connected to the SWIFT system and any sanctions and restrictions on food, fertiliser, ships and agricultural machinery must be lifted.
SWIFT, which stands for Society for Worldwide Interbank Financial Telecommunication, is an international financial artery which allows for the better flow of funds transfers across borders. A month after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, seven Russian banks were removed from SWIFT. Rosselkhozbank was removed a few months later, in June 2022.
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