Turkish President Recep Erdogan will meet separately in the coming days with his Russian counterparts, Vladimir Putin, and Ukrainian, Volodymyr Zelensky, to resume the agreement on grain exports, the head of Turkey’s diplomacy announced on Tuesday.
“The president will speak with Putin and Zelensky in the coming days. We believe that we will succeed,” Mevlüt Cavusoglu told reporters, recalling that the grain export agreement “benefits everyone.”
On Monday, Erdogan expressed Turkey’s commitment to uphold Ukraine’s grain export deal despite the withdrawal of Russia, which has already criticized and questioned Ankara’s decision.
“Although Russia has doubts about this, because it does not have the same facilities, we will continue efforts to serve humanity,” said Erdogan, who, together with Ukraine, Russia and the United Nations, had agreed last summer, the export of 9, 5 million tons of cereals and other food products.
The Turkish president referred to Turkey’s efforts to facilitate the arrival of cereals to countries facing the risk of famine due to the blockade of Ukrainian exports due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24.
“With the joint mechanism that we established in Istanbul, we contribute to alleviate the food crisis,” he said, referring to the system established so that ships leaving or arriving at Ukrainian ports are inspected in the Turkish city.
Erdogan’s words were countered by Moscow the same day, with the Kremlin saying that continuing to export grain from Ukraine without Russia would be “dangerous.”
According to Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov, it will be “dangerous” and “difficult” to continue implementing the Ukraine grain deal without Moscow.
“In the conditions in which Russia talks about the impossibility of ensuring the safety of navigation in these areas, this agreement is difficult to implement and takes a different, much riskier, dangerous course,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said. , after being questioned about the possibility of continuing to apply the agreement without Russia.
Russia announced on Sunday that it had suspended participation in the deal indefinitely, following drone attacks on Russian warships in Sevastopol, a port located on Ukraine’s annexed Crimean peninsula.
In the remarks, Erdogan recalled that Ukraine and Russia produce a third of the world’s wheat.
Several ships left Ukrainian ports for Istanbul on Monday, and another 16 plan to transit the humanitarian sea corridor, said Ismini Palla, UN spokesman for the Joint Coordination Center (JCC), which also includes Ukraine, Russia and Turkey. and the United Nations. .
To make up for the lack of Russian inspectors, the JCC proposed, with Moscow’s knowledge, that the Turkish and UN delegations provide 10 teams to inspect 40 ships with departure permits on Monday, a proposal that was accepted by Ukraine.
According to the JCC, 112 freighters await inspection off Istanbul.
The agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain, which entered into force on August 1 and expires on November 19, allowed the export of more than 9.5 million tons of grain and other agricultural products, according to the JCC.
Source: TSF
