Russian President Vladimir Putin (R) and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan are to meet in Sochi on Monday for talks on resuming the shuttered Black Sea Grain Initiative. Photo by Sergei Chirikov/EPA-EFE
Russian President Vladimir Putin is to meet his Turkish counterpart on Monday when President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to try and convince the Kremlin head to revive a shuttered agreement to allow the export of Ukrainian grain.
Turkey’s foreign ministry said in a statement Sunday that Erdogan’s one-day trip to Sochi was at Putin’s invitation. Advertisement
“Current regional and global matters as well as the Turkey-Russia relations will be discussed at the talks to be held between President Erdogan and his Russian counterpart,” the brief statement said.
The announcement comes seven weeks after Russia suspended the United Nations- and Turkey-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative, which allowed more than 32 million metric tons of grain and foodstuffs to leave Ukraine, on accusations that promises made to Moscow in exchange for allowing shipping vessels through its sea blockade had not been fulfilled.
The deal had been established July 27, 2022, in Istanbul and its expiration sparked condemnation from much of the democratic world.
However, as the meeting was to get underway, Kyiv officials accused Moscow of targeting key port infrastructure over the weekend. Advertisement
Russia launched 25 drones at Ukraine, which intercepted 22 of them, with the remainder hitting targets in the southern Odesa region.
“Unfortunately, there is a hit in the port infrastructure, as a result of which a fire broke out, which the firefighters promptly extinguished,” Serhii Bratchuk, head of the public council at the Odesa Regional Military Administration said on Telegram. “It is known in advance about 2 injured civilians. They were given medical assistance.”
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has repeatedly called for the safe export of grain and foodstuff from Ukraine, and late last week he sent Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov a letter, presenting proposals to create the conditions for the resumption of the grain deal.
“We believe that the Black Sea initiative has given a very important contribution to make the food markets more adequate to our objectives of food security,” he told reporters during a press conference, adding that a renewal of the deal must “be stable.”
“We cannot have a Black Sea initiative that moves from crisis to crisis, from suspension to suspension. We need to have something that works and that works to the benefit of everybody,” he said. Advertisement
