"From what we have seen in the past couple of days is that the situation is getting worse. However, we are not going to give up. We have an opportunity to meet with president Putin to discuss and see how we can find a way of getting concrete results," Assoumani said.
"Consequences [of the deal's expiration] affect the entire world and especially Africa in social and economic aspects. So yes, we should make resolution to this issue a priority. In reality, everything is priority, there will not be a problem if guns are put down there. Unless this happens, I think the issue of grain and fertilizers affect everyone. We will talk about it in St. Petersburg, we will discuss it [the grain deal] with Putin to see how we could restart this agreement," he said.