ANKARA, December 25. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Sunday that he shares Russian President Vladimir Putin’s call for focusing on supplies of food to African countries via the Black Sea grain corridor.
"Regrettably, the West has added only provocative elements to the Russian-Ukrainian war. Turkey acted as a mediator in 2022. We used the Black Sea corridor. Mr. Putin said, ‘Let us focus on Africa rather than Europe. I am ready to supply grain for free.’ We said, ‘Let us process grain you will sent into flour at our mills and we will dispatch it to African countries,’" he said at a meeting with the Turkish youth, which was broadcast on his Twitter account.
According to the Turkish president, Europe received 44% of Ukrainian grain, Turkey received 16% and only 14% reached African countries.
A package of documents geared to resolve the problem of food and fertilizer supplies on global markets was signed on July 22 in Istanbul for a term of 120 days. One of the agreements regulating grain exports from the Kiev-controlled ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny was to expire on November 19. On November 17, the agreements were extended for 120 more days. According to the Russian foreign ministry, the deal was automatically extended since there were no objections from either of the parties to it (Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United Nations).