09/04/2023 05:07 (current 09/04/2023 05:10)
Discussions should begin at lunchtime ©APA/AFP/Archive
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish head of state Recep Tayyip Erdogan will meet for talks in Sochi on the Black Sea on Monday. The Kremlin announced that this will involve bilateral and international issues. An important topic in the talks, which are scheduled to begin at noon, is Erdogan’s demand for a return to the agreement on the transport of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea. This is important to feed the world.
Turkey is also concerned about security in the Black Sea region, Ankara said. Putin established conditions for returning to the agreement negotiated last year with the mediation of the Erdogan government and the United Nations. Sanctions imposed by the West following Russia’s war of aggression against Ukraine should be relaxed so that Moscow can once again export its own grain and fertilizers unhindered. Russian gas deliveries through the Black Sea are also important for Turkey.
It is the first meeting between the two heads of state since Erdogan’s re-election in May. Relations between the two countries are by no means smooth; They are not just warring parties in civil war-torn Syria. In the region of the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict, Turkey is on the side of Azerbaijan, which won a war in the region against Armenia in 2020. Armenia, on the other hand, feels abandoned by Putin and Russia, the protecting power.
In the war in Ukraine, the Turkish president acts as a mediator between Moscow and Kiev and maintains close contacts with both parties to the conflict. Turkey, a member of NATO, does not participate in Western sanctions against Russia.
Russia allowed the grain deal to expire in July. Security guarantees for shipping with Ukrainian ports have been lifted. This led to a new naval blockade. Previously, despite the Russian invasion, the agricultural country of Ukraine has exported around 33 million tons of cereals and other agricultural products by sea since the summer of 2022. The war-torn country urgently depends on income from exports.
Ukraine and Russia are important suppliers of wheat, barley, sunflower oil and other food products – particularly to countries in Africa, the Middle East and parts of Asia. Before the start of the war, Russia was also the world’s largest exporter of fertilizers. The failure of these supplies after the Russian invasion in February 2022 drove up food prices around the world and fueled fears of a hunger crisis in the poorest countries.
Russia recently launched missile and drone attacks on Black Sea and Danube ports in the Odessa region of southern Ukraine, destroying important infrastructure for grain exports. Ukraine therefore accused Russia of terrorism with the aim of preventing the transport of cereals, important for global nutrition, to places such as Africa or Asia. There are no UN or Ukrainian representatives at the talks in Sochi, so lasting progress is unlikely.
Shortly before renewed Russian attacks over the weekend, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that two more cargo ships had passed through the Black Sea grain corridor created by Kiev. After Russia’s withdrawal from the agreement, Kiev is trying to organize exports despite the risk of attacks from Moscow.
Russia has threatened to consider ships calling at Ukrainian ports as carrying military cargo. Zelenskyy once again called on Western allies to provide even more anti-aircraft systems in order to better protect the region from Russian attacks. Ukraine also wants to regain air sovereignty.