Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan will talk on the margins of the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Samarkand. During this conversation, the situation around the grain deal may be touched upon, Russian presidential spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Friday.
"It is possible and necessary," he said in response to a question about whether contact between the leaders on this topic is possible. - "A conversation between Putin and Erdogan is already being prepared, which we expect will take place in Samarkand."
According to a Kremlin spokesperson, this conversation is really necessary. "We see that the Istanbul agreements on grain are being implemented. We see that especially this implementation does not give, does not bring any benefits to the poor states, because only two ships with food cargoes arrived in these poor countries (according to the UN classification)," he said, explaining that this is the first topic for discussion.
The second is getting Russian food into international markets. "We have heard very, very sly statements by representatives of the United States, a number of European states that, say, Russian food, Russian fertilizers are not subject to any sanctions," the spokesman said.
Peskov noted that de jure this is indeed the case. "But de facto, getting Russian food and fertilizers to international markets is extremely difficult and very limited - due to the fact that merchant ships cannot enter ports, they are not insured, they are not accepted, they are not serviced - and so on and so forth," he pointed out.
At that, the Kremlin representative reminded that when the countries agreed to this scheme, "unblocking of the situation in the Black Sea and assisting this process" was related to unblocking the access of Russian products to international markets. "One side of this arrangement in the Black Sea, with the direct participation of the Russian Federation and with the very and very valuable mediation efforts of the Republic of Turkey, was solved. The second part has not been solved. This is a subject of a special conversation," he concluded.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS