Russia moved to cancel on Friday Ukrainian Grain Export Agreement If there is no progress in removing restrictions on exports of fertilizers and foodstuffs.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said during a visit to Ankara that “if there is no progress in removing barriers to Russian grain and fertilizer exports, we will ask whether this agreement is necessary.”
Regarding the war in Ukraine, Lavrov said that any peace talks on Ukraine must be based on the establishment of a “new world order” that is not subject to US hegemony.
Lavrov said during a joint press conference with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusoglu, that “negotiations can only take place taking into account Russian interests. These are the principles on which the new world order is based.”
Russia and Turkey move jointly on many international files, and according to the Russian Foreign Ministry, Moscow emphasizes the need to coordinate positions with Ankara.
Among the items on the agenda is the Ukrainian “implementation of the grain agreement,” which Erdogan personally intervened in when it was signed in July. 2022 In Istanbul.
“Continuous Conversation”
And inside 19 March An agreement allowing the export of Ukrainian grain through a safe passage through the Black Sea was extended despite the war.
But Moscow proposed an extension 60 day in a goodwill gesture” instead120 The essentially agreed days insist on honoring the rest of the agreement on the export of Russian fertilizers.
Vital to global agriculture, these products are not subject to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow since its February invasion of Ukraine. 2022However, it faces obstacles.
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest grain producers. An agreement brokered by Ankara and the United Nations in July 2022 Exported more than 25 million tons of grain.
NATO ally Turkey, which maintains cordial relations with its Black Sea neighbors Russia and Ukraine, is pushing for the resumption of peace talks between them, hoping to build on its diplomatic efforts launched last year.
Since the beginning of the conflict, Turkey has managed to maintain relations with Ukraine and Russia.
The Russian Foreign Ministry said, “Despite the complexity of the international situation, the Russian-Turkish political dialogue continues in the first place at the level of the presidents of the two countries.”
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan often speak by phone or in person.
Last year, the two leaders met four times in Sochi, Tehran, Samarkand and Astana.
Syrian-Turkish Reconciliation File
Russia, on the other hand, wants to promote reconciliation between Turkey and Syria, whose relations have soured since the start of the Syrian war. 2011. She called several meetings, but they remained a dead letter so far.
Any meeting with Erdogan would require Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to withdraw Turkish forces from northern Syria to prevent Kurdish offensives.
However, Turkish presidential spokesman and Erdogan’s diplomatic adviser Ibrahim Kalin announced an upcoming meeting in Moscow on Wednesday between the two countries’ foreign and defense ministers, as well as the ministers of Russia and Iran.
He explained that the meeting with the intelligence chiefs of the four countries would take place “in the coming days”. Colin met President Putin in Moscow on Thursday, the Kremlin announced.
France 24/AFP
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