The president of Turkey will soon travel to Russia to discuss with his Russian counterpart the resumption of the agreement on the export of Ukrainian grains, Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s party spokesman announced.
The spokesman said the initiative came from Erdogan “to prevent the world from facing a food crisis”.
“Soon he will visit Sochi. We believe that new developments may take place after this visit,” said Omer Celik, quoted by the French agency AFP.
Turkish and Russian officials have not given a date for Erdogan’s meeting with President Vladimir Putin.
The financial agency Bloomberg reported that the trip could take place on September 8, before Erdogan leaves for the G20 summit, which takes place in New Delhi over the next two days.
Russia belongs to the group of the 19 most developed economies and the European Union, but the Kremlin (presidency) announced last week that Putin will not travel to India because he is focused on the war with Ukraine.
Putin is the subject of an International Criminal Court (ICC) arrest warrant for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, which Russia invaded on February 24, 2022, putting him at risk of detention if he travels abroad.
The Kremlin has denied the allegations against Putin and has not used the ICC order to justify the Russian leader’s absence from South Africa’s BRICS summit last week.
Turkey is one of the parties to the agreements the UN signed in July 2022 with Moscow and Kiev to allow the export of grains through the Black Sea that were withheld due to the war.
In July this year, Russia terminated the deal, claiming that Western sanctions it had imposed over its invasion of Ukraine prevented it from exporting grain and agricultural fertilizers.
Since then, Moscow has threatened to attack ships sailing from Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea.
Ukraine now depends on land routes and a shallow river port, which significantly limits the volume of exports.
Since pulling out of the deal, Russia has attacked Ukraine’s grain infrastructure, drawing accusations from Ukraine and the West of worsening world food insecurity.
Before the war, according to the British magazine The Economist, Ukraine and Russia together supplied 28% of the world’s wheat, 29% of barley, 15% of corn and 75% of sunflower oil.
In one year, the Black Sea Initiative enabled the departure of approximately 33 million tons of grains and other food products from three Ukrainian ports to 45 countries.
Turkey is seeking to revive the original agreement in hopes of using it as a springboard for wider peace talks between Kiev and Moscow, AFP said.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said during a visit to Kiev on Friday that he saw “no alternative” to reactivating the original agreement.
Fidan is expected to travel to Moscow in the coming days to discuss the Kremlin’s demands and arrange a meeting between Erdogan and Putin.
Source: DN
