Turkish Foreign Ministry: Erdogan will discuss with Putin a new mechanism for the export of Ukrainian grain

Turkish Foreign Ministry: Erdogan will discuss with Putin a new mechanism for the export of Ukrainian grain

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin will discuss a new mechanism for exporting Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea during a meeting in Turkey.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan announced this in an interview with A Haber TV channel on Sunday, Reuters reports.

Putin is expected to visit Turkey on February 12, marking the Russian dictator’s first trip to a NATO member since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Fidan said there were efforts to find “new methods” of transporting Ukrainian grain to world markets.

“The previous grain agreement worked within the framework of a certain mechanism, now we have seen that there is an opportunity to move to another mechanism, and now efforts are being made to concretize this opportunity,” the Turkish Foreign Minister said, adding that Erdogan will raise this issue during a meeting with Putin.

Fidan noted that some ships were able to transport Ukrainian grain from the Black Sea, even without an agreement with Russia.

"We want to clarify this de facto (situation) through a new mechanism," he said.