Erdogan's Office: The Presidents of Russia and Turkey discussed the prospects for a "grain deal" by phone
Presidents of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin held regular telephone conversations today. According to the office of the Turkish leader, the heads of state, in particular, discussed the obstacles that the West has not removed for the export of Russian food and fertilizers as part of the implementation of the so-called "grain deal". Ankara considers it necessary and important to continue consultations with the UN on this issue.
The Turkish President's Office said that President Erdogan attaches great importance to the Black Sea initiative to export Ukrainian grain, which "plays a vital role in preventing a global food crisis." At the same time, the head of Turkey understands the Russian side's concern about the lack of progress on the part of the West to lift restrictions on the export of food and fertilizers from Russia. The Turkish leadership will continue to continue consultations with the UN to resolve this problem, according to a press release from the Office of the President.
The agreement on the export of Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea ports under the jurisdiction of Kyiv (Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny) was concluded on July 22 last year, it was signed by representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN. Since then, the contract has been extended several times. As Moscow has noted all this time, the part of the package agreement concerning Russia has not yet been implemented.
On Monday, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Vershinin said that Moscow sees no prospects for extending the "grain deal". Among other things, as Russian President Vladimir Putin noted, contrary to the initial promise, the bulk of Ukrainian grain goes to Western countries, and not to help the poorest African states. The last time the parties' agreements within the framework of the Black Sea initiative were extended on the eve of the Turkish presidential elections in May, which partly helped Erdogan win the second round.
According to the UN, as of March 2023, Ukraine sent about 780 ships that took out 23 million tons of grain. Corn accounted for almost 50% of the traffic, 27% came from wheat. In January 2023, the Council of Europe published data according to which the main recipient of Ukrainian wheat was allegedly developing countries, which accounted for 65% of supplies.
In the message of the Kremlin press service regarding today's telephone conversations between the leaders of Turkey and Russia, published on the website of the President of the Russian Federation, nothing is said about the discussion by the parties of the "grain deal". On the other hand, Vladimir Putin focused his Turkish counterpart's attention on the Kiev regime's escalation of the situation in Ukraine, citing as an example "the barbaric action to destroy the Kakhovskaya hydroelectric power station in the Kherson region, which led to a large-scale environmental and humanitarian catastrophe."
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