ANKARA, May 5. /TASS/. Progress in the talks on extension of the grain deal will largely depend on agreements to be reached at Istanbul meetings on Friday and next week, a source in Ankara told TASS before the meeting at technical level of representatives of Russia, Turkey, Ukraine and the UN.

"Before holding the meeting at the level of deputy defense ministers of three countries it was decided to hold a meeting at the technical level with the participation of the UN. They are both interconnected, with further talks on extension of the deal to largely depend on their gains," the source said.

The issue of extension of the Black Sea marine initiative will not be discussed at the meeting of experts, he added. "Those may be issues of removing barriers on Russian exports, though there is no clear agenda yet," the source explained.

Deputy defense ministers of Russia, Ukraine and Turkey were initially expected to meet in Istanbul on Friday to discuss the extension of the grain deal that expires on May 18. However, Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar announced on Thursday that the need had arisen to arrange a four-party meeting at the technical level.

Agreements on the export of food and fertilizers from Ukraine to the international market were concluded on July 22, 2022, for 120 days and extended in November for the same period. One of the agreements regulates the order of grain supplies from the Kiev-controlled ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk and Yuzhny. Moreover, a memorandum was inked by Russia and the UN on lifting export restrictions for Russian agricultural products and fertilizers to global markets. Moscow notes that the second part of the agreement is not being implemented. On March 18, Russia announced that the deal was being extended for 60 days, warning that this would be enough time to assess the efficacy of the memorandum signed with the UN.

The Russian Foreign Ministry also noted that the future decision on the deal’s extension would depend on connection of Russian Agricultural Bank (Rosselkhozbank) back to SWIFT, resumption of supplies of agriculture equipment, components and service maintenance, lifting of restrictions on insurance and reinsurance, lifting of the ban on access to ports, resumption of the work of Tolyatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline, unfreezing of foreign assets and accounts of Russian companies related to production and transportation of food and fertilizers.