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ANKARA — Turkey’s Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan spoke with his Russian counterpart Sergey Lavrov by phone on Tuesday as Ankara continued to ramp up its efforts to convince Moscow to return the critical deal that allows Ukrainian grain to reach world markets.
Ukraine, dubbed as the world’s bread basket, is a key country also for the World Food Program’s hunger relief program. The United Nations agency shipped more than 725,000 tons to support humanitarian operations around the world since the Black Sea Grain Initiative’s launch.
Russia and Ukraine signed separate deals with the United Nations and Turkey as part of the Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2022, five months after the war between the two countries broke out. The deal was extended twice, but Russia refused to extend the deal again, arguing that the deal failed to help Russian exports to reach world markets due to Western sanctions on Russia.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov announced on Monday that Russia would not extend the deal until a series of conditions Moscow tabled are met. The withdrawal means Russia will no longer guarantee the safe passage of Ukrainian products laden ships in the Black Sea. The deal expired on Monday, increasing grain prices globally.
Turkey’s public broadcaster TRT reported on Tuesday that Fidan and Lavrov discussed the latest developments on the deal without further elaborating. Lavrov, in turn, reiterated that the initiative failed to ensure the export of Russian products, according to a Russian readout.
On Monday, Fidan also discussed ways to convince Moscow’s return to the deal with UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres.
In a statement after Russia's Monday announcement, Guterres said that the deal helped several countries including Afghanistan, the Horn of Africa and Yemen, warning that Moscow's withdrawal from the deal would exacerbate the humanitarian situation in those countries. “Hundreds of millions of people face hunger and consumers are confronting a global cost-of-living crisis. They will pay the price,” he said.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken also called for the restoration of the deal as soon as possible, describing the Russian decision as “unconscionable.”
The 2022 deal brokered by Turkey and the UN allowed some 32 million tons of food commodities from Ukrainian ports to reach world markets, according to UN figures.
