Ankara and the Kremlin announced preparations for negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan

Russian President Vladimir Putin will soon make an official visit to Ankara to discuss the terms of the resumption of the grain deal and issues of bilateral cooperation with Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan. The heads of state agreed on this during telephone conversations on August 2, the office of the Turkish president said. The date of the visit has not yet been announced. The Kremlin confirmed the talks between the presidents, but did not provide details.

In addition to the visit to Turkey, the presidents discussed the grain deal by phone. Erdogan promised that his country will continue to make efforts to renew the agreement. According to him, the suspension of the deal “is not beneficial to anyone” and the countries that need food supplies will suffer the most from this. Erdogan noted that after Russia withdrew from the deal on July 17, grain prices increased by 15% in a week. True, then they went down: on August 2, the price of wheat on the New York Mercantile Exchange (NYMEX) was $661 per bushel, and at the time the grain deal was closed on July 18, it was $654.

The resumption of the Black Sea initiative will in no way affect prices on the world market, Arkady Zlochevsky, president of the Russian Grain Union, is sure. “There are no problems with food supply in the world. Although market prices rose after Moscow withdrew from the agreement, they were caused by the psychological effect of market participants. The total supply of grain on the market exceeds demand,” the expert said.

The Russian President noted that due to the lack of progress in the implementation of the Russian part of the deal, Moscow’s participation in the agreement has lost its meaning. At the same time, he confirmed his readiness to resume participation as soon as the West fulfills its obligations to Russia. Moscow’s conditions include reconnection of Rosselkhozbank to SWIFT and resumption of operation of the Togliatti-Odessa ammonia pipeline.

Erdogan thanked Putin for sending two amphibious firefighting aircraft to Turkey to fight forest fires, and noted the growing interest of Russian tourists in his country. In the first six months of 2023, 2.61 million Russians came to Turkey, which is 79.5% more than in the same period last year. Russia took the 1st place in terms of the number of tourists in the country (13.3% of the total tourist flow), follows from the statistics of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism of Turkey. Last year it was visited by more than 5.2 million Russians.

Putin and Erdogan communicate by phone regularly: on June 7 they discussed the situation around Ukraine, and on June 25, at the initiative of the Turkish President, Putin spoke about the situation in the country after the attempted rebellion by the founder of PMC Wagner Yevgeny Prigozhin. The Russian leader’s possible visit to Turkey could be Putin’s first foreign trip since the International Criminal Court (ICC) issued a warrant for his arrest in March. Ankara, like Moscow, does not recognize the jurisdiction of the ICC.

On July 21, Erdogan said that the grain deal could be resumed after Putin’s visit to Turkey. Putin, at a press conference following the Russia-Africa summit on July 29, confirmed his intention to meet with Erdogan, adding: “Either he will come to us, or I will go to him.”

The meeting with Putin gives Erdogan political points in the eyes of the Turkish voter ahead of the autumn local elections, says Iqbal Durre, associate professor of the theory of regional studies at the Moscow State Linguistic University. On the other hand, Erdogan wants to restart the grain deal, Durre continues. Turkey is one of the largest flour producers in the world and needs an uninterrupted supply of grain. In addition, this is the last NATO country that maintains contacts with Moscow.