The Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Sorin Grindeanu, on Friday stated, in Galati, that the government is going to take measures in the next period to increase the transit capacity of Ukrainian grains through Romania from 2 up to 4 million tonnes every month.

The Minister of Transport's statement was made following discussions with high representatives of the United States of America, the European Union, the Republic of Moldova and Romania about alternative routes for transporting the grains from Ukraine.

"We agreed that the Ukrainian grain exports must be accelerated in the context of the recent attacks that we are all aware of in recent weeks on the Ukrainian ports of Reni and Ismail. During these meetings, we emphasized the importance of Romanian transport routes by land, by rail, and also by sea, to maintain a continuous flow for exports and imports from Ukraine. In what concerns the Danube as a transport route, the Sulina Canal is the only viable waterway in this case, and therefore it is important to optimize the capacity on this route. It was an extremely good meeting, fruitful, which will lead us through the measures we will take to increase the transit capacity of grains coming from Ukraine, through Romania, so that from over 2 million tonnes we currently have monthly we will reach the target we have proposed in the next period, namely of almost 4 million tonnes," explained Minister Sorin Grindeanu.

High representatives of the United States of America, the European Union, the Republic of Moldova and Romania met, on Friday, in Galati, to discuss alternative routes for transporting the grains from Ukraine, the announcement about this meeting and the discussion agenda being made, on Thursday, by the US Embassy in Bucharest.

Besides Minister Sorin Grindeanu, and Jim O'Brien, who heads the US office that manages the sanctions regimes (U.S. Sanctions Coordinator), Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov, Magda Kopczynska - director for Water Transport from the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, representatives of the European Commission and the Minister of Agriculture from the Republic of Moldova, Vladimir Bolea, also attended.

"In the face of adversity, unity wins. In a crucial meeting, (...) Romania, Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, the European Commission and the United States will join forces, following Russia's exit from the Black Sea Grain Initiative ( ...) Despite Russia's relentless destruction of Ukrainian port infrastructure and grain warehouses, we stay committed to ensuring the uninterrupted continuity of Ukrainian grain exports to meet global demand. By working together, we are determined to strengthen and diversify alternative routes for grain exports by rail, road and sea, ensuring thus Ukraine's essential role on the global food market," the US Embassy said.

The press release from the US Embassy once again denounced Kremlin for "turning food into a weapon and endangering global food security." AGERPRES (RO - author: Florin Zafiu, editor: Marius Fratila, EN - author: Cristina Zaharia)