ANKARA, September 26. /TASS/. Russia is conducting negotiations on supplies of Russian grain with Turkey and Qatar at the level of the foreign ministers of the three countries, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan told reporters during an in-flight interview on his aircraft returning from Azerbaijan.
"In particular, as for the grain corridor, Mr. [Russian President Vladimir] Putin’s goal is African countries," the state-run Anadolu agency quoted the Turkish president as saying.
"We agreed, and now telephone diplomacy has begun. We are working on this process with our foreign ministers and, ideally, we would like to continue it with African countries. Because 44% of the grain passing through the corridor goes to European countries, 14% goes to us, 14% goes to Africa, and the rest goes to other countries," Erdogan elaborated.
On August 31, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart, Hakan Fidan, held talks in Moscow. They discussed the Black Sea grain deal and how to implement the proposed initiative to supply one million tons of Russian grain to Turkey at a preferential price with Qatar providing financial backing. On September 4, presidents Putin and Erdogan discussed this issue at their bilateral meeting in Sochi.
The parties noted that the proposal is not meant as a replacement for the now-defunct Black Sea Grain Initiative, which was terminated on July 17. Rather, its goal is to ameliorate critical food security issues affecting the neediest countries. Turkey has expressed support for the proposed initiative and stated that it stood ready to implement it.