Aug. 7 (UPI) — Russian President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan later this month to discuss restarting a stalled deal that allowed Ukraine to export grain from its blockaded Black Sea ports.
The resumption of the Black Sea Grain Initiative with the aim of containing grain prices would be one of the main topics of Putin’s tentative visit to Ankara in late August, the Russian news agency TASS said Monday, citing a diplomatic source.
“Obviously, one of the main issues during the Russian president’s potential visit will be the revival of the grain deal. Progress in this area will make it possible to prevent further growth of grain prices after the suspension of the implementation of the Istanbul agreements,” said the source.
“The current situation affects the countries most in need of agricultural products, and this problem should be solved in parallel with Russia’s questions to the parties to the deal,” the source said, adding that Ankara was confident of negotiating an agreement with Russia.
Erdogan’s cabinet was scheduled to meet Monday to discuss the possible summit, which Erdogan first broached during a visit to Istanbul by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on July 9.
Putin and Erdogan agreed to plan for the meeting in a phone call last week in which Putin emphasized that Russia was willing to work with Turkey and other interested countries to figure out ways to get its grain to countries that needed it.
For his part, Erdogan pledged that Ankara would keep doing everything it could, including diplomatic means, to move toward an agreement on expanding the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Russia quit the agreement on July 17, hours before the latest in a series of extensions was due to expire claiming it was not receiving the promised benefits of the deal.
Putin said Moscow had only agreed to the July 2022 U.N.-Turkey brokered deal because it was its moral obligation to “remove illegitimate obstacles to the supply of grain and fertilizers from Russia to world markets,” but none of its provisions had been fulfilled.
The source was not forthcoming on tangible proposals that the Turkish side was weighing with representatives of the U.N., Russia and Ukraine, but he said he believed that a positive resolution would bolster Ankara and Moscow’s standing in Africa and Asia.
Grain prices, which fell 23% while the deal was in force, according to Erdogan, soared 15% in the two weeks after the grain deal lapsed.
