NEW DELHI, March 2 – Russia and Turkiye discussed the Black Sea grain initiative, which allows Ukrainian grain into world markets, among a host of issues during their talks on the sidelines of the G-20 foreign ministers meeting in New Delhi.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on Wednesday exchanged views on issues related to Russia-Turkiye political and economic cooperation, including earthquake relief, the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement.
The future of the Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea ports and the efforts to normalise Turkish-Syrian ties also figured in their discussion.
The Ukraine grain agreement, brokered by Turkiye and the United Nations, is up for renewal on March 18. It was signed in July 2022 and extended in November.
“While discussing the future of the Black Sea grain initiative, the Russian foreign minister said that the package grain agreement could continue only with due consideration of the interests of Russian agricultural and fertiliser producers, notably, their free access to world markets,” the Russian statement noted.
“They paid special attention to the work of stakeholder countries in the region to normalise Turkish-Syrian ties while simultaneously increasing efforts to eliminate the terrorist threat in Syria,” it said.
