Erdogan hints of Putin's consent on Black Sea grain deal renewal

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday said he is in agreement with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that a deal allowing the Black Sea export of Ukraine grain should be extended, as the accord is set to expire on 17 July.

Speaking to reporters, Erdogan said that the deal will hopefully be renewed from its current July 17 deadline as results of the efforts by the United Nations and Türkiye.

The United Nations and Turkiye brokered the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Russia and Ukraine in July 2022 to help alleviate a global food crisis worsened by Moscow's invasion and blockade of Ukrainian ports.

Putin has repeatedly threatened not to renew it because of obstacles to Russia's own exports.

"We are preparing to welcome Putin in August. We are on the same page with him on the issue of extending the Black Sea grain corridor," Erdogan told reporters in Istanbul.

It was not immediately clear when and how the deal could be renewed.

The Turkish leader added he "hopes" the deal can be extended, particularly to allow impoverished African countries access food.

The European Commission is helping the UN and Turkiye try to extend the deal and is open to "explore all solutions," a European Union spokesperson said Thursday.

Ukraine and Russia are among the world's leading grain exporters.

Russia has threatened to ditch the initiative because several demands to dispatch its own grain and fertilizer abroad have not been met. A key demand by Moscow is the reconnection of the Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) to the international payment network SWIFT. It was cut off by the EU in June 2022 over Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

The EU is considering connecting a subsidiary of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT to allow for grain and fertilizer transactions, reports said Wednesday.

Erdogan said U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres had sent a letter to Putin this week. In the letter, Guterres reportedly proposed that Moscow allow the deal to continue for several months to give the EU time to connect a Rosselkhozbank subsidiary to SWIFT.

"I hope that with this letter we will ensure the extension of the grain corridor with our joint efforts and those of Russia," Erdogan said.

A day earlier, Putin warned that "not one" of Moscow's conditions for the deal to function had been met.

"I want to emphasize that nothing was done, nothing at all. It's all one-sided," Putin said in a televised interview, adding: "We will think about what to do, we have a few more days."

A Kremlin spokesperson later said that Russia had not taken a final decision on whether to exit the grain deal.

The initiative, which Erdoğan helped broker, has allowed Ukraine to ship more than 32 million tons of grain past Russian warships in the Black Sea.

Much of the grain has gone to feed people in developing countries in Africa, the Middle East and elsewhere. If the exports were again blocked, food prices could spiral even higher than they are now.