President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet in the resort city of Sochi on Sept. 4 to discuss the Black Sea grain deal, according to Turkish sources speaking to Reuters on Thursday.
The two leaders will discuss the fallout from the war in Ukraine, as well as a deal that allowed the export of Ukrainian grain via the Black Sea, one of the sources said.
The Black Sea grain deal, brokered by Türkiye and the United Nations in 2022, ended after Russia withdrew in July.
Since then, Russia has repeatedly attacked Ukrainian ports and grain stores, prompting Ukraine and the West to accuse it of using food as a weapon of war.
Russia says it quit the deal because too little of the grain was getting to the poorest countries and because it still faces obstacles to exporting its own grain and fertilizer, given that Western sanctions affect payments, insurance and port access.
Also on Thursday, the Kremlin claimed no specific results had been agreed on yet regarding a proposal by Moscow to ship Russian grain via Türkiye to poor countries, with financial support from Qatar.
Russia said on Wednesday it was proposing the plan as an alternative to the grain deal.
Türkiye has, however, been trying to convince the Kremlin to return to the agreement that it brokered.
Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is due in Moscow on Thursday and Friday to meet Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov to discuss the deal, Putin’s initiative and other issues, including Ukraine, Syria, Libya and Transcaucasia.
Lavrov previously said Moscow, following the collapse of the grain deal, would consider all ships heading to Ukraine as potentially carrying military cargo.
A temporary corridor established by Ukraine’s government has been operating under the radar since, with the second container ship sailing through Türkiye’s Bosporus strait on Saturday.
“But we see these ways cannot be an alternative to the original initiative and contain risks,” Fidan said at a news conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Dmytro Kuleba in Kyiv last week.
Ankara has also insisted that Russia be included in the equation since its exclusion risks further attacks on Ukrainian ports.
Erdoğan also strives to accomplish brokering a permanent truce between the two countries. He voiced hope for results due to his efforts “if Putin and Zelenskyy agree on our mediation.”
