A Russian delegation headed by eForeign Minister Sergei Lavrovmeets on Wednesday with the Turkish government to negotiate how to send to international markets up to 20 million tons of grain held in Ukraine due to the Russian invasion and thus avoid a food crisis.
The Russian minister, who arrived in Turkey on Tuesday night, will first hold a meeting with his Turkish counterpart, Mevlut Cavusolgluand then the two will direct the contacts between the teams of their countries, before offering a press conference.
The main subject of negotiation will be how to avoid a shortage crisis due to the blockade of millions of tons of wheat and other foods for the blockade of Ukrainian posts, especially Odessain the Black Sea. Turkey controls the Dardanelles Strait and the Bosphorusthe entrance to the Mediterranean Sea from the Black Seawhere Russia and Ukraine also have a coast.
The threat of anti-ship mines
ankara offered, at the request of United Nationsto escort merchant ships transporting food from the Ukrainian coast, an operation complicated by the war situation and the presence of anti-ship mines.
The Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akarhas already assured that after the contacts he has had with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts, “many advances have been made for the export of grain from Ukraine” and how to open a maritime corridor to achieve it.
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Another item on the agenda will be the reopening of peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia, something in which Ankara has been willing to act as a mediator, hosting in the past even some meetings that did not prosper. The Turkish announcement of a new military operation in northern Syria will also be discussed, with the aim, says the Government, of reinforcing the security corridor on the border to prevent attacks on Turkish soil by Kurdish militias.
Turkey Y Russia support opposing sides in the Syrian civil war; the first to rebel groups while Moscow is the main backer and supporter of the Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad’s regime.