Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is visiting Russia for a meeting with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, the Turkish newspaper Yeni Şafak reported Aug. 22, citing sources in the Turkish presidential administration.
Erdogan’s upcoming trip to Russia could be “critically important” and a “most important step” in resuming the Black Sea Grain Initiative, the paper said.
Following Russia’s withdrawal from the grain deal on July 17, Turkish presidential sources said serious progress had been made in talks to restore the initiative.
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Earlier, Erdogan had said his meeting with Putin had been postponed until September at the earliest.
On July 28, the Wall Street Journal reported that Putin ignored Erdogan’s requests to negotiate an extension of the grain deal.
Read also: Poland wants EU aid to build agricultural ports to help ship Ukraine’s grain
Putin said it was impossible to hold a bilateral phone call because the Turkish president had chosen an “inconvenient moment”.
For his part, Erdogan said that Turkey was ready to contribute to ending Russia’s war against Ukraine.
Erdogan said on August 9 that he intended to revive the agreement on grain exports via the Black Sea and that he had previously discussed the matter with the Russian dictator during a phone call.
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