Erdogan: Putin’s visit is imminent
Türkiye wants to help Russia with grain exports
8/4/2023 5:54 p.m
At Putin’s request, Turkish President Erdogan promises Russia support in supplying grain to African countries. The planned meeting of the two heads of state is expected to take place soon, despite recent diplomatic upsets.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan plans to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin later this month as part of his efforts to revive the grain deal with Ukraine. “I think this visit will take place in August,” Erdogan said in Istanbul. There is no exact date yet, but his foreign minister and the head of the secret service held talks with Moscow.
According to the Kremlin, Putin had previously asked Turkey in a telephone call for support in exporting Russian grain to African countries. Turkey is ready “to process the grain from the Black Sea into flour and transport it to poor, less developed African countries,” Erdogan said.
Last month, Russia pulled out of the UN-Turkey-brokered grain deal that had allowed Ukraine to ship grain across the Black Sea despite the war. Since the agreement came into force a year ago, almost 33 million tons of grain have been exported from Ukrainian ports.
Tensions after Zelenskyj’s visit
In July, during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, Erdogan announced that Putin would visit Turkey in August. However, Zelenskyy returned from his visit to Turkey with five top Ukrainian commanders of the Istanbul Azov regiment, who were supposed to remain in Turkey until the end of the conflict under a prisoner exchange agreement with Moscow. Moscow reacted angrily. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at the time it was a “direct violation” of the agreement with Turkey.
Ankara has managed to maintain friendly relations with both Russia and Ukraine throughout the Ukraine war. On the one hand, Turkey supplied arms to Ukraine, but on the other hand, it did not support Western sanctions against Russia.