Putin to visit Turkey after phone call with Erdogan

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov announced that Russian President Vladimir Putin had a telephone conversation with President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Peskov said the two leaders had agreed on Putin’s visit to Turkey. Erdogan and Putin spoke for the first time since the NATO summit in Vilnius, where Turkey agreed to Sweden’s membership.

In a statement, the Kremlin spokesperson said that Erdogan had expressed the necessity to avoid steps that could escalate tensions during the Russia-Ukraine war. The statement further said: “President Erdogan stressed the importance of the Black Sea Initiative, which he described as a ‘bridge of peace’. President Erdogan pointed out that a prolonged inactivity of the Black Sea Initiative would be in no one’s interest and that low-income countries in need of grain would suffer the most, noting that grain prices, which had fallen by 23 percent during the implementation period, had risen by 15 percent in the last two weeks. He also noted that ‘Turkey will continue its intensive efforts and diplomacy for the continuation of the Black Sea Initiative’. Russia withdrew from the agreement on 17 July, which had allowed Ukraine to safely export grain through the Black Sea, and has since attacked Ukrainian agricultural and port infrastructure. Moscow said the withdrawal was due to the international community’s failure to ensure that Russia could also freely export grain and fertilizer.

On the other hand, Peskov said that Russia was ready to return to the grain agreement, but only if the terms of the agreement regarding Russia were fulfilled. “Moscow can return to the grain corridor agreement if Russia’s concerns are met,” Peskov said. In a recent speech, Putin said that he and Erdogan had agreed to meet in person before the elections in Turkey, but had not yet agreed on whether the meeting would take place in Turkey or Russia. The Russian leader said Erdogan had invited him to the elections, but added that the meeting had not taken place ‘in order not to cause speculation’. The Turkish president announced last month that he hoped Putin’s planned visit could lead to the restoration of the Black Sea grain deal and called on Western countries to consider Russia’s demands.