Russia's President Vladimir Putin and Turkey's President Tayyip Erdogan meet on the sidelines of the 6th summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-building Measures in Asia (CICA), in Astana, Kazakhstan October 13, 2022. Sputnik/Vyacheslav Prokofyev/Pool via REUTERS

Turkish President to visit Russia

On Aug 29, 2023

Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia soon to discuss the collapsed United Nations deal that had allowed Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain, a spokesperson for Turkey’s ruling AK Party said.

The UN and Turkey-brokered deal lasted a year but ended last month after Moscow quit. Ankara is seeking to persuade Russia to return to the agreement, under which Odesa’s seaports shipped tens of millions of tons of grain.

Since the grain export deal collapsed, Russian forces have targeted Ukrainian ports with volleys of missiles and kamikaze drones.

The AK Party spokesperson, Omer Celik said Erdogan would visit Russia’s Black Sea resort of Sochi ‘soon’ but did not specify whether he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“After this visit, there may be developments and new stages may be reached regarding” the grain deal, he said.

The Kremlin said on Friday there was an understanding the two leaders will meet in person soon.

REUTERS/Christopher Ojilere