In an interview broadcast Dec. 1 with Turkey’s TRT television in Germany (TRTDeutsch) , former German security advisor for former Chancellor Angela Merkel over 2006-2013 Gen. Erich Vad (ret.) said that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s decisive role in negotiating the grain export agreement with Russia and Ukraine “is a format that could be quite interesting” for potential peace negotiations,” and that “the Turkish President could also play a decisive role there, because of course he still talks to Putin, which many Western leaders no longer do or only talk on the phone.
“The grain agreement is very important. Particularly in view of the ongoing war in Ukraine, it was really to the credit of the Turkish President, it has to be said—that he negotiated in parallel with Russia and also the Ukrainians and negotiated this grain agreement.”
“Of course, we gave the Ukrainians everything we could give so that they could defend themselves against this aggression by Russia,” Vad continued. “We have actually relied very, very unilaterally on military escalation, and I have to say Turkey has been an exception, because they have also supplied weapons to Ukraine. They have also condemned Russia for the aggression. They also stood behind Ukraine as a strong NATO member in the Western formation, of course. But they have additionally talked to the adversary, talked to Putin, and I thought that was very important. And they were able to negotiate this agreement, which can really be a first step—perspective to a future peace agreement.”