Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will arrive “soon” in Sochi, Russia, to talk to Russia’s Vladimir Putin about resuming the grain export agreement with Ukraine. The announcement was made on Monday (28) by the president’s party spokesman, Omer Celik.
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“Our president took this initiative [of a negotiation on the resumption of the agreement] to prevent the world from facing a food crisis. He will visit Sochi soon. We believe that news should be announced after this visit,” said Celik. The Turkish and Russian authorities have not confirmed the date of this meeting.
According to the Bloomberg news agency, the Turk could go to Russia on September 8, before his trip to the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
Agreement broken off in July
The Russian government suspended the agreement allowing grain exports from Ukrainian ports during the war on July 17.
Since then, the country has threatened to attack all ships leaving Ukraine via the Black Sea, limiting the flow of grain production to land routes and a shallow river route.
In one month, Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports are said to have destroyed “270,000 tons of grain”, according to Ukrainian Infrastructure Minister Oleksander Kubrakov.
The Ukrainian government responded at the beginning of August by opening a “temporary” Black Sea corridor, largely controlled by the Russian Navy. Despite the risk, some ships have used this corridor to cross the Black Sea. On Sunday (27), the second grain ship arrived in Istanbul.
Turkey, which helped conclude the agreement between the two countries in July 2022, is now trying to take up the initial commitment in order to use it as leverage for peace negotiations between the two countries.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is due to visit Moscow in the next few days to organize the meeting between Erdogan and Putin.
(With information from AFP)