The secretary-general of the United Nations will hold meetings with President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov in efforts to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative next week.
''I am determined to do everything possible to reestablish the Black Sea Grain Initiative,'' Guterres told reporters Wednesday.
Guterres did not say exactly when he would meet the aforementioned officials.
Russia suspended the grain deal in July because it said parts related to its demands have "not been implemented so far," referring to the removal of obstacles to fertilizer exports and the inclusion of the state-owned Russian Agricultural Bank in the SWIFT international payment system.
The Turkish- and U.N.-brokered agreement was signed in Istanbul in July 2022 by Russia, Ukraine, Türkiye and the U.N., creating a safe corridor through the Black Sea for exports from three Ukrainian ports since the war began in February of that year.
It helped rein in spiraling prices and ease a global food crisis by restoring the flow of wheat, sunflower oil, fertilizer and other products from Ukraine – one of the world's largest grain exporters.
Ukrainian President Zelenskyy will attend the global gathering of world leaders for the first time in person.
Last week, Erdoğan said any initiative that isolates Russia is unlikely to be sustainable and called for Moscow not to be “marginalized” in talks aimed at reviving a key deal to export Ukrainian grain through the Black Sea.
He said he was not “hopeless” about reviving the grain deal and stressed that Russia, Ukraine and Türkiye will continue to discuss the agreement.
Türkiye has positioned itself to facilitate any peace talks between the warring sides. It has opposed the Russian invasion but also the Western sanctions on Moscow.
Erdoğan has maintained good relations with Putin and helped broker prisoner exchanges between the warring sides.
He has repeatedly called on Western countries to consider Russia’s demands.
