Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (D) received Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the presidential palace in Ankara on Friday, April 7, 2023. (AFP/Adem ALTAN)
The head of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov threatened Friday in Ankara to suspend the agreement on Ukrainian grain exports if sales of Russian agricultural products remain hampered.
Mr. Lavrov spoke to the press after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlüt Cavusoglu, whose country was heavily invested in the conclusion of this agreement last summer.
“If there is no progress in removing barriers to Russian fertilizer and grain exports, then we will wonder whether this deal is necessary,” Lavrov warned.
The agreement, which allows Ukrainian grain to be exported via the Black Sea despite the war, was extended on March 19.
The Russian minister was then received by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan at the presidential palace, welcomed by a long handshake by the head of state campaigning for his re-election on May 14. No details leaked from the discussions.
The heads of Russian diplomacy Sergei Lavrov (g) and Turkish Mevlüt Cavusoglu, in Ankara, April 7, 2023 (AFP/Adem ALTAN)
Mr. Erdogan and Vladimir Putin met four times last year and talk regularly by phone, the last time on March 25.
But Moscow offered 60 days rather than the initially agreed tacit extension of 120 days, insisting on respecting the other part of the agreement, which concerns its own fertilizer exports.
Theoretically, these products essential to world agriculture do not fall under the Western sanctions imposed on Moscow since the invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But they are in fact hindered by the banks.
Cargo ships carrying cereals and other seeds at the southern entrance to the Bosphorus in Istanbul, Turkey, on October 31, 2022 (AFP/Ozan KOSE)
According to the Turkish minister, “the United States and the United Kingdom have taken measures in terms of payment and insurance, but problems persist. Some banks have not done the necessary”.
Similarly, Cavusoglu continued, “steps have been taken to re-ship Russian ammonia and fertilizers from Western countries to African countries, but the problem is not solved.”
Furthermore, Mr. Lavrov denounced the inequality of Ukrainian exports between rich and poor countries.
According to the Joint Coordination Center responsible for overseeing the international agreement, 56% of exports went to developing countries, and 5.7% went to the least developed countries, which total more than 12% of the world’s population.
– “New world order” –
Russia and Turkey act together in several international issues and Moscow had argued before the arrival of Mr. Lavrov the need to “synchronize the clocks” with Ankara.
Turkey has managed since the beginning of the conflict to maintain relations with Ukraine and Russia and Mr. Cavusoglu expressed Friday “his concern (concerning) an escalation of the conflict in the spring”.
But, Mr. Lavrov warned, peace negotiations on Ukraine will only be possible if they aim at establishing a “new world order” without American domination.
“Negotiations can only take place on the basis of taking Russian interests into account,” he insisted. “These are the principles on which the new world order will be founded.”
Grain exports from Ukraine (AFP/Archives/Jonathan WALTER)
Russia intends to promote reconciliation between Ankara and its Syrian ally and has convened several meetings, which have so far remained without result.
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad has conditioned any meeting with Mr. Erdogan on the withdrawal of Turkish forces present in northern Syria to prevent Kurdish attacks.
But the spokesman and diplomatic adviser to President Erdogan, Ibrahim Kalin, announced on Wednesday an upcoming meeting in Moscow of the foreign and defense ministers of the two countries, plus those of Russia and Iran.
This will take place “in the coming days” with the intelligence chiefs of the four countries, said Mr. Kalin: the latter also met President Putin on Thursday in Moscow, the Kremlin announced.
“The dialogue must continue. It would be beneficial if the consultations continued in the same way,” the Turkish minister confirmed on Friday.
© 2023 AFP
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