Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan was busy at work in New Delhi on resurrecting the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
“I had an opportunity at the summit to discuss in detail the grain deal. It [the deal] made it possible to avoid a food crisis in the world. As you know, it was extended three times. Thirty-three million tons of grain were supplied over this time. The process without Russia will unlikely be sustainable. Russia cannot be excluded from the grain process. There must not be any attempts to whip up tension in the region,” Erdogan said in a press release. TASS reported that “Türkiye is asking world leaders ‘to facilitate insurance of Russian food and fertilizer exports by Lloyds of London and to reconnect Moscow to the SWIFT system for international payments,’ Turkish officials familiar with the discussions said.
“Türkiye is telling its Western counterparts that the way to revive the deal is to ease some sanctions, which prevent Moscow from importing agricultural equipment, the Turkish officials told the agency.” Addressing reporters after meeting with G20 host Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi after the culmination of the G20 summit, Erdogan said: “We believe that any initiative that isolates Russia is bound to fail. Its success is a very little possibility. We believe that any step that may escalate the tensions in the Black Sea should be avoided. … In order to support the global food security, food supply security, we are going to bring together the Food Supply Security Study Group, both Russia, Ukraine, as well as the United Nations, and with our stakeholders coming from the international community, we are going to have continuous talks.”
