Erdogan's Russia visit vital for grain deal, Turkish leader's chief aide says
Published: 03:09 PM,Sep 03,2023 | EDITED : 07:09 PM,Sep 03,2023
ANKARA: Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will focus on the Black Sea grain deal during their meeting on Monday as Türkiye seeks to bring Moscow back to the deal, Erdogan's chief foreign policy advisor said.
'We play a leading role here. We see strong support from all around the world for the realisation of the grain corridor,' Erdogan's chief foreign policy and security advisor Akif Cagatay Kilic told an interview on A Haber television channel.
'The current status of the grain deal will be discussed at the summit on Monday. We are cautious, but we hope to achieve success because this is a situation that affects the entire world,' Kilic said.
Ankara acknowledged the technical complexities surrounding the agreement, particularly concerning Russian grain and payment mechanisms, Kilic said. The issue also involves international payment systems such as SWIFT, posing a multifaceted challenge, Kilic added.
'Here, the decision of Russian leader is important. I believe that the bilateral meeting between President Erdogan and Putin will play the most important role in this issue.'
Russia quit the deal in July - a year after it was brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye- complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Erdogan would hold talks with the Kremlin chief in Sochi on Monday but gave no further details.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow to discuss grain ahead of the Erdogan meeting.
Shoigu said it was not Russia's fault that the grain deal had failed and repeated the Russian position that Moscow would return to it if all the promises made to Russia were fulfilled.
'It turned out that it is more difficult to do this than to build new corridors, new ground routes,' said Shoigu, who attended the signing ceremony for the Black Sea deal in Istanbul in 2022.
The Black Sea grain deal was intended to combat a global food crisis that the United Nations said had been worsened by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which Russia calls a 'special military operation'.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that he had sent Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov 'a set of concrete proposals' aimed at reviving a deal that allowed the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea. — Reuters
'We play a leading role here. We see strong support from all around the world for the realisation of the grain corridor,' Erdogan's chief foreign policy and security advisor Akif Cagatay Kilic told an interview on A Haber television channel.
'The current status of the grain deal will be discussed at the summit on Monday. We are cautious, but we hope to achieve success because this is a situation that affects the entire world,' Kilic said.
Ankara acknowledged the technical complexities surrounding the agreement, particularly concerning Russian grain and payment mechanisms, Kilic said. The issue also involves international payment systems such as SWIFT, posing a multifaceted challenge, Kilic added.
'Here, the decision of Russian leader is important. I believe that the bilateral meeting between President Erdogan and Putin will play the most important role in this issue.'
Russia quit the deal in July - a year after it was brokered by the United Nations and Türkiye- complaining that its own food and fertiliser exports faced obstacles and that not enough Ukrainian grain was going to countries in need.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that Erdogan would hold talks with the Kremlin chief in Sochi on Monday but gave no further details.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu in Moscow to discuss grain ahead of the Erdogan meeting.
Shoigu said it was not Russia's fault that the grain deal had failed and repeated the Russian position that Moscow would return to it if all the promises made to Russia were fulfilled.
'It turned out that it is more difficult to do this than to build new corridors, new ground routes,' said Shoigu, who attended the signing ceremony for the Black Sea deal in Istanbul in 2022.
The Black Sea grain deal was intended to combat a global food crisis that the United Nations said had been worsened by Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which Russia calls a 'special military operation'.
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres said that he had sent Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov 'a set of concrete proposals' aimed at reviving a deal that allowed the safe export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea. — Reuters