Metropolis Desk-
On Monday, Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met with Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin in the Russian Black Sea resort of Sochi in an effort to convince him to resume a grain export agreement with Ukraine that had helped to alleviate a worldwide food crisis.
Russia left the agreement in July, a year after it was negotiated by the UN and Turkey, citing difficulties with its own exports of food and fertilizer as well as a lack of Ukrainian grain reaching developing nations.
Putin told Erdogan they would discuss the Ukraine crisis and that Moscow was open to discussions on the grain deal. Erdogan previously played a significant role in convincing Putin to stick with the deal.
Erdogan’s top security and foreign policy advisor, Akif Cagatay Kilic, stated in an interview with the A Haber television network, “We are cautious, but we hope to succeed.”
Monday will see meetings with Erdogan’s senior economic policymakers in Russia, a Turkish official who sought anonymity told Reuters. Meetings will be attended by the governor of the central bank, Hafize Gaye Erkan, and finance minister Mehmet Simsek.
Putin informed Erdogan that progress was being made with Turkey in the energy sector, and Erdogan agreed that negotiations between the central banks of the two nations would be crucial.
The goal of the grain agreement was to transport grain from Ukraine to international markets via the Black Sea and to alleviate the global food crisis, which the UN claimed had been made worse by Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February of last year.
In addition to being prominent players in the markets for wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, rapeseed oil, sunflower seeds, and sunflower oil, Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s top producers of agricultural products.
Putin has stated that if the West complies with a separate memorandum negotiated with the United Nations at the same time to facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports, Russia may return to the grain deal.
Although Western sanctions implemented after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine do not apply to Russian exports of food and fertilizer, Moscow claims that restrictions on payments, logistics, and insurance have hampered shipments.
Officials from Ukraine claimed that Russia attacked one of its major grain export terminals overnight before the Erdogan talks.
Romania refuted a Ukrainian claim that Russian drones had landed and exploded on its soil.
On Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced that he had given Sergei Lavrov of Russia “a set of concrete proposals” in an effort to save the agreement.
Reconnecting the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT global payments network is one of Moscow’s top requests. As part of broad measures issued in response to the invasion, the EU cut it off in June 2022.
Without going into detail, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, claimed on Saturday that items implied by the agreement had not been carried out previously. Russian state television stated that pledges made to Russia must be kept in its broadcast of the Erdogan meeting.
On Thursday, UN Secretary-General António Guterres announced that he had given Sergei Lavrov of Russia “a set of concrete proposals” in an effort to save the agreement.
Reconnecting the Russian Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT global payments network is one of Moscow’s top requests. As part of broad measures issued in response to the invasion, the EU cut it off in June 2022.
Without going into detail, Maria Zakharova, a spokeswoman for the Russian foreign ministry, claimed on Saturday that items implied by the agreement had not been carried out previously. Russian state television stated that pledges made to Russia must be kept in its broadcast of the Erdogan meeting.
For Russia, Erdogan is a key broker—and one respected personally by Putin. It is their first in-person meeting since October.
Source- Arab News
