Agreement was suspended on July 17, its activation could be a bridge for peace.
Erdogan asks Putin to renew the grain agreement.
The president of TürkiyeRecep Tayyip Erdogan, on Wednesday urged his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to renew the Ukrainian cereal export agreement and not increase the tensions of the conflict, after Moscow attacked a river port vital for the output of grain from Ukraine.
In the telephone conversation with Putin, Erdogan pointed out that the agreement, suspended on July 17, could be a “bridge to peace”, according to the Anadolu news agency.
He also stressed that steps should not be taken that would lead to increased tension in the Russo-Ukrainian war, a request that comes after an attack that caused no casualties but did damage a grain silo in Izmail, a border port with Romania. , a NATO member country.
Russia suspended agreement
Since Russia suspended the grain export agreement, which allowed it to operate in three Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, Izmail, a river port on the Danube River, almost 100 kilometers from the sea but suitable for large cargo ships, has become the gateway Ukraine’s largest business.
At this moment, a hundred ships are waiting their turn in the Romanian waters of the Black Sea at the mouth of the Danube and more than fifty are navigating the river or docked at the Izmail docks.
Erdogan insisted that keeping the grain export agreement suspended for a long time would not benefit anyone and would hurt lower-income countries above all, which need to import grain.
He recalled that after the approval of the agreement, in July last year, the world price of cereals had fallen by 23%, while it had risen again by 15% in the last two weeks, when the pact was deactivated.
He added that for his part he would continue to deploy intense diplomatic efforts to resume the agreement.
Putin, for his part, responded that extending the grain export pact made no sense, due to the “total lack of progress” regarding the pro-Russian measures included in the agreement, according to a Kremlin statement.
He assured Erdogan that he was ready to resume the pact as soon as the West assumed its obligations towards Russia.
Throughout the past year, Moscow had denounced that although the export of Russian grain and fertilizer was included in the agreement, its ships were having enormous difficulties using European ports or the banking system, due to EU sanctions against Russia. .
Putin also recalled that he was considering the option of sending grain free of charge to countries in need, a promise made several times in the past and reiterated at the Russian-African summit in Saint Petersburg last week.
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