Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, agreed that the agreement facilitating Ukrainian grain exports, which expires on Monday, should be extended. “We have the same opinion”, assured the Turkish president to the local press in Istanbul.
Erdogan expressed optimism that Moscow will put aside its reluctance, after highlighting that the Secretary General of the UN, António Guterres, has sent a letter to Putin. “I hope that with the letter, with the joint efforts of us and Russia, we will ensure the expansion of the works on the grain corridor”, said the Turkish president.
Erdogan also emphasized that, already on other occasions, Putin agreed to extend the pact to alleviate the food problems of less developed countries.
Under the mediation of the UN and Turkey, Russia and Ukraine agreed a year ago on a series of measures to ensure that ships loaded with Ukrainian grain can go to the international market from Black Sea ports.
The aim, then, was to avoid a global food crisis triggered by the war in Ukraine, since both that country and Russia are some of the most important grain exporters in the world.
Moscow declared at the beginning of July that it sees no reason to extend the agreement, because it does not see compliance with the part of the pact that was supposed to facilitate Russian exports of food and fertilizers.
Russia alleges that the severe financial sanctions imposed on it by the Western powers make it difficult to export.
On the other hand, Erdogan communicated that his Government has begun to prepare to receive Putin in August, in the first visit of the Russian president to Turkey since the beginning of the invasion of Ukraine, on 24 February 2022.
