ANKARA, September 11. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that he plans to discuss an option to increase food shipments to poor African countries with Russian President Vladimir Putin, he told reporters upon arrival from the G20 Summit in India.

"Earlier, 33 million tons of certain types of grain were shipped. We once again offered to provide aid to the least developed African states, to increase these volumes. [Russian Foreign Minister Sergey] Lavrov proposed [during the talks in India] to discuss this with the president [Putin]. I will once again discuss this issue with Mr. Putin over the phone; it would be beneficial to facilitate the aid to the least developed African states by increasing these volumes," Erdogan said, according to TRT.

The Turkish leader also noted that his country will "continue to seek solutions in order to restore the operation of the grain corridor."

"We discussed these issues in detail [with Putin] in detail during the visit in Sochi. Mr. Putin said that the West did not fulfill the promises it gave. He noted that he will ship 1 million tons of grain first of all. During the meeting with Lavrov [at the G20 Summit] we discussed the plans to ship one million tons of grain to poor African nations within the Qatar-Turkey-Russia format. We will assess this project and make steps for its implementation," Erdogan said.

On August 31, Sergey Lavrov met with Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan in Moscow; they discussed the grain deal and the parameters of implementation of the initiative on shipment of 1 million tons of Russian grain under discounted price to Turkey with Qatar’s financial support. On September 4, Putin and Erdogan discussed this issue in Sochi.

The sides noted that this project is not a replacement for the grain deal, which was stopped on July 18. Its goal is to prevent critical food problems in countries in need. Turkey expressed its support to this initiative and stated its readiness to implement it.