UN tables a new deal for grain initiative: Fidan

MOSCOW

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan has revealed that the U.N. is working on a new agreement for the revival of the grain initiative and making it a more sustainable one, days before President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Russian President Vladimir Putin are set to meet in Sochi.

Fidan was in Moscow for talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov on Aug. 31. He will also meet Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu on Sept. 1.

“The U.N. has prepared a new proposal. We think it constitutes a proper ground [for the resumption of] grain export,” Fidan told at a press conference. According to Fidan, the new proposal aims to address Russian demands in the light of lessons taken from the implementation of the previous agreement. “We aim to have a more permanent grain agreement,” he said.

On a question, Fidan said the proposal was very complicated and technical and that the work by the U.N. and Turkish authorities is still underway.

For his part, Lavrov commended the efforts of Türkiye and the U.N. for the revival of the grain initiative, informing that he had a meeting with U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres in Johannesburg in the previous days.

Lavrov said Putin is supporting all these efforts but that so far the new proposal does not bring about promises and not guarantees. “There will be no progress in the absence of guarantees,” he added.

The Russian top diplomat stressed that Russia is planning to supply 1 million tons of grain to the needy countries after processing them in Türkiye and with the sponsorship of Qatar. “We want to transport 1 million tons of wheat to those who are in need,” he suggested.

The two foreign ministers also discussed the agenda of the upcoming talks between Erdoğan and Putin on Sept. 4 in Sochi.

On Syria, Lavrov said he discussed with Fidan the new steps to be taken as part of the Ankara-Damascus normalization process. Defense and foreign ministers of Türkiye and Syria held meetings under Russian mediation early this year, but no sensible progress could be made due to Damascus’ insistence on the withdrawal of Turkish troops from the Syrian territories.

Ankara says there is still a security vacuum in the region and that it cannot abandon the area to the control of terrorist groups.