On Monday, Tayyip Erdogan, the President of Turkey held talks with Vladimir Putin, the President of Russia, in Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi, striving to convince him to return to a Ukraine grain export deal that allowed the relief of a global food situation.
Moscow left the deal in July opposing that its own food and fertilizer exports encountered obstructions and that not enough Ukrainian grain was being provided to nations in hunger.
Putin told Erdogan they would be concerned about the Kyiv trouble and that Russia was available about talks on the grain deal.
Erdogan previously played an important part in persuading Putin to attach to the agreement.
Akif Cagatay Kilic, Erdogan’s chief foreign policy and security advisor said in an interview on A Haber television channel that we are careful, but we expect to gain victory.
Erdogan’s top economic policymakers are visiting Russia for discussions on Monday, a Turkish official told Reuters. Finance Minister Mehmet Simsek and Hafize Gaye Erkan, the central bank governor, will join the meetings.
Putin told Erdogan things were pushing ahead in the energy sphere with Turkey and Erdogan said discussions between the two nations’ central banks would be essential.
The grain agreement was aimed at bringing grain from Ukraine to global markets through the Black Sea and relieving an international food crisis that the United Nations said had been worsened by Moscow’s full-scale attack on Ukraine in February 2022.
The Russian leader has said Moscow could return to the grain agreement if the West fulfills an independent memorandum approved by the United Nations at the same time to facilitate Russian food and fertilizer exports.
While Russian exports of food and fertilizer are not subject to Western sanctions set after Moscow attacks Kyiv, Russia has said restrictions on payments, logistics, and insurance have delayed shipments.
