Turkey President To Discuss Grain Deal With UN

President Tayyip Erdogan said Turkey is in close contact with the United Nations on reviving the Black Sea grain initiative.

Report says he will discuss it with Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres at its general assembly this month.

After talks in Russia with Vladimir Putin, Erdogan was quoted as saying the latest UN proposal sought to address some Russian demands, and he repeated he believed a solution could be found soon.

Meanwhile, Russian demands include a return of its Agricultural Bank to the SWIFT payments system and insuring the ships involved in the grain initiative, he said.

“On August 28, UN Secretary-General Guterres, in the letter he sent, proposed an intermediary mechanism that would result from the SWIFT transaction, not directly SWIFT as the Russians wanted,

“They said work was underway on the insurance issue too,” Erdogan said.

He added that Moscow was putting these two demands forth as ‘musts’ to revive the initiative and that Putin had told him he would not take steps on this until “Europe keeps the promises they made me.”

Meanwhile, Moscow withdrew in July, ending a year of protected exports from Ukrainian ports amid the war.

On Monday, Putin repeated that Russia could return to the initiative, but only if the West stopped restricting Russian agricultural exports from reaching global markets.

Erdogan will participate in the G20 summit in India on September 9-10 before attending the UN General Assembly in New York on Sept. 18-26.

“We will have meetings with Guterres there to discuss these issues,” Erdogan was cited as saying.

REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere