ISTANBUL, August 24. /TASS/. The possibility of holding negotiations between grain deal participants in Istanbul depends on the results of talks in Moscow and Kiev conducted by Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan, a local diplomatic source told TASS.
"The possibility of a meeting in Istanbul between the countries participating in the grain deal was mentioned earlier as one of the options of returning to the grain deal. However, technical negotiations must precede a high-level (ministerial - TASS) meeting and this will largely depend on Turkish Foreign Minister Fidan’s upcoming talks in Moscow and in Kiev before that," the source said commenting on an article on the matter by Turkey’s Milliyet.
On Thursday, the Milliyet newspaper, citing sources, reported that the top Turkish diplomat will visit Moscow in September to hold talks on renewing the grain deal. The newspaper also claimed that the talks on the grain initiative in Istanbul between representatives from Russia, the UN and Turkey were possible, calling them one of the scenarios of "reviving the initiative." In the event of success, in the future, negotiations with Ukraine’s participation may be held in Istanbul, Milliyet notes.
According to the newspaper, Turkey’s top presidential advisor Akif Cagatay Kilic visited Kiev on August 23 while Fidan will travel to the Ukrainian capital on August 25. The agenda of Turkey’s representatives involves the renewal of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
The Black Sea grain deal ceased to function on July 17. After agreeing several times since the inception of the grain deal in July 2022 to extend the agreement to provide a shipping corridor across the Black Sea for vessels carrying Ukrainian grain, Moscow reiterated that the Russia-related provisions of the accords on the removal of obstacles to agricultural exports were never implemented. Russia also highlighted the fact that, although the agreements were intended to direct food supplies to the poorest countries, the bulk of Ukrainian grain had gone to wealthy Western countries. The Kremlin said that the Russian side would consider resurrecting the grain initiative as soon as its conditions were met.