ISTANBUL, September 1. /TASS/. The resumption of the grain deal will be the focus of the upcoming talks between Presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey and Vladimir Putin of Russia in Sochi and Ankara hopes an agreement is reached here, Turkish presidential adviser Akif Cagatay Kilic said on Friday.

"Our Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan is currently in Russia. Yesterday, he met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. Today, he has a meeting with Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu. This visit is part of preparations for Monday's summit between the two leaders," he said in an interview with the A-haber television channel.

"Russia said that as long as its specific demands are not met, it will not return to the deal. There is a range of technical matters that need to be settled. We are in talks, including with the United Nations, because the problem [of grain export] concerns the entire world. We hope that an agreement on the restoration of the grain corridor will be reached in Sochi," he said, adding that the Turkish side views the situation with cautious optimism.

The upcoming summit will be the first personal meeting between the two presidents after the termination of the grain deal on July 17. Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin said in an interview with TASS that Russia’s conditions remain unchanged: reconnecting Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT, resuming supplies of spare parts, establishing transport logistics and insurance, and resuming Russian companies’ access to their overseas assets. With this done, it will be possible to look at reviving the Black Sea Initiative, he added.