Russia and Ukraine made progress on Wednesday during a meeting of military experts in Istanbul on the thorny issue of blocking grain exports, with Turkey announcing further talks on the subject next week.
“Really substantial progress” has been made, UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres told the media, who said he hoped that a “formal agreement” could be concluded soon. “Today in Istanbul we saw a momentous step, a step forward to ensure the safe and secure export of Ukrainian food products across the Black Sea,” he continued: “We have a glimmer of hope to alleviate human suffering and alleviate world hunger. »
Cautious optimism also came from the side of Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar, who stressed that Russians and Ukrainians had agreed on “common controls” in ports and on the means of guaranteeing secure maritime corridors for agricultural products.
“It was agreed that the delegations of Russia and Ukraine would meet again in Turkey next week”, he noted, judging that a final agreement on the cereals blocked in the ports of Ukraine could then intervene.
“We are on the verge of an agreement,” said the head of Ukrainian diplomacy, Dmytro Kouleba.
Famine fears
The agreement negotiated by Antonio Guterres for more than two months aims not only to bring out through the Black Sea some 20 million tonnes of grain blocked in Ukrainian silos, in particular in Odessa, in southern Ukraine, but to facilitate Russian grain and fertilizer exports. So many products that are sorely lacking on the world market.
It was the first time in three months that Russians and Ukrainians met in Istanbul. Organized on the European side of the Bosphorus, in the presence of representatives of the United Nations, the talks lasted three hours in total.
Moscow recalled on Tuesday its demand to “check and search ships to avoid the smuggling of weapons and a commitment from kyiv not to organize provocations”. Russia also wants Ukraine to demine its ports, which the latter refuses to consider for fear of an amphibious assault on cities such as Odessa.
Ukraine is one of the world’s leading exporters of wheat and other cereals. And time is running out in the face of rising global food prices, which poses the risk of famine in Africa, among others. Turkey, a member of NATO and an ally of the two belligerents, has been increasing diplomatic steps for months to facilitate the resumption of deliveries. Turkish officials have assured that they have 20 cargo ships in the Black Sea ready to be quickly loaded with grain.
So far, Turkish efforts, made at the request of the UN, have failed to resolve the situation.
The Turkish head of state, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, has been mediating since the start of the war, and is careful not to offend Moscow while providing combat drones to Ukraine. Turkey and its struggling economy, with record inflation of 79% year on year, are heavily dependent on its gas trade with Russia.