President Abdel Fattah El Sisi urged Russian President Vladimir Putin to renew the Black Sea grain pact on Fridayduring a plenary session at the Russia-Africa Summit in St. Petersburg, according to an Ittihadiya readout. “I look forward to reaching a consensual solution with regard to the grain [pact] that would take into consideration the demands and interests of all parties and curb rising grain prices,” El Sisi said.

ICYMI-Russia earlier this month pulled out of the grain export pact with Ukraine. Brokered by Turkey and the UN in July 2022, the agreement had enabled Ukraine to resume its grain exports via the Black Sea after a blockade by Russia helped provoke a global food crisis. The renewed blockade is preventing Ukraine from shipping grains to food insecure countries in Africa such as Egypt, which is among the world’s largest importers of wheat. Since exiting the deal, Moscow has bombarded Ukrainian ports, destroying thousands of tons of grain.

Moscow is trying to keep African nations on side: Putin on Thursday promised to send free grain to six African nations. Egypt was not among those countries, which included Eritrea, Burkina Faso, Central African Republic, Somalia, Mali and Zimbabwe.

Russia is the latest to ban rice exports: M oscow yesterday imposed a ban on rice exports until the end of the year “to maintain stability in the domestic market,” Russian news outlet Sputnik reports quoting a government statement on Telegram. The UAE has also banned rice exports and re-export for four months, including rice of Indian origin, effective on 28 July, Reuters reports citing a WAM report .

El Sisi’s speech got ink in the foreign press:Reuters | BBC | The Guardian

ALSO FROM THE SUMMIT-

Egypt and Russia have agreed to boost energy cooperation, Russian Energy Minister Nikolay Shulginov told Russian state-owned news agency Tass ahead of the summit. Shulginov said he and Oil Minister Tarek El Molla had “agreed on increasing oil supplies to Egypt and on expanding the participation of Russian oil and gas companies in new projects on production of hydrocarbons” in Egypt.

Lada to resume assembly in Egypt: Russian carmaker AvtoVAZ plans to resume the assembly of Lada cars at the Al Amal Auto assembly plant in Egypt, Sputnik qu otes CEO Maxim Sokolov as saying during the summit. Avtovaz expects Al Amal to become a transportation and logistics hub for all of Africa, Sokolov added.

Refresher: Al Amal, the local agent of Lada and BYD vehicles, suspended the assembly of the Lada Granta last year on the back of Western sanctions on Russia and has been teetering on the brink of a shutdown as a result of last year’s import restrictions.

Denmark’s turn for reproach: The Foreign Ministry on Thursday summoned Denmark’s ambassador to Cairo to condemn a recent spate of Quran burning incidents by anti-Islam protesters in the country, the ministry said Thursday. Five demonstrators set fire to the Quran outside the Egyptian embassy in Copenhagen last Tuesday in what was the third such incident in less than a week. This came two days after a similar conversation with Sweden’s chargé d’affaires in Cairo.

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