ANKARA, August 22. /TASS/. Turkey intends to make more efforts to resume the grain deal taking into account the expectations of all parties and is continuing talks with the UN and Western countries on the issue, a source in Ankara told TASS.
"In the near future, Turkey will make more efforts to resume the grain deal on fair terms that meet the expectations of all parties, including Russia. To this end, Ankara is continuing its contacts with the UN and Western countries," the source pointed out.
The grain deal expired on July 17. In exiting from the deal, Moscow, which had agreed to extensions of the July 2022 Istanbul agreements creating the Black Sea corridor for ships carrying Ukrainian grain several times, cited the failure of its deal partners to fulfil the Russia-related provisions of the deal, which called for removing obstacles to Russian agricultural exports. Moscow also noted that, although the Istanbul agreements were intended to ensure food security for the neediest countries, the bulk of Ukraine's grain actually went to wealthy Western countries. Russian President Vladimir Putin said that Moscow could consider resuming the grain deal if all of the Russia-related provisions are in fact implemented.
Later, the Russian Defense Ministry said that due to the termination of the grain deal, from July 20 Moscow would consider all ships sailing to Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea as carriers of military cargoes, and the flag countries of such ships would be considered involved in the Ukrainian conflict on the side of Kiev. In addition, the ministry said that a number of sea areas in the northwestern and southeastern parts of the international waters of the Black Sea have been declared temporarily dangerous for navigation.