President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin may soon discuss a U.N.-backed initiative that has enabled grain exports from Ukrainian ports, a report claimed on Monday.
There is no date set yet, the Russian state-owned RIA news agency said, citing a source familiar with the negotiations on the deal.
Ukraine said that broader negotiations on extending the Black Sea Grain Initiative that has allowed grain to be exported from three Ukrainian ports are expected this week.
The agreement was extended by an additional 120 days in November and is up for renewal again in March. Still, Russia has signaled it is unhappy with some aspects of the deal and has asked for sanctions affecting its agricultural exports to be lifted.
“The topic of the grain deal, proposals in this regard are always on the leaders' agenda. Therefore, it should not be ruled out that the leaders will touch on this topic at talks shortly,” RIA quoted its source as saying.
When asked when these negotiations could occur, the source said that he “does not have exact data on the date.”
Meanwhile, the head of the U.N. food agency on Saturday warned that a failure to renew the initiative would be catastrophic as millions in Africa are on the cusp of famine.
"It's critical," World Food Programme (WFP) Director David Beasley told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the Munich Security Forum.
"With all the crises we are facing worldwide with climate change, droughts, flash floods, we can't afford the Black Sea Grain initiative to fall through at all," Beasley added.
Beasley said the current flow of goods and grains was nowhere near where it needs to be.
He warned Moscow that shutting down the ports would be catastrophic, notably in Africa, where millions of people face famine. "Africa is very fragile right now. Fifty million people (are) knocking on famine's door," he said.
"Food prices, fuel costs, debt inflation and three years of COVID-19 ... the people have no more coping capacity, and if we don't get in and get costs down, then 2024 could be the worst year we have seen in several hundred years."
