(Reuters) – Awaited negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan remain the only hope of extending the Black Sea grains deal which is due to expire next week, the news agency reported on Monday. Russian RIA.
The Black Sea Agreement, negotiated between Russia and Ukraine by the United Nations and Turkey in July 2022, aimed to prevent a global food crisis by allowing Ukrainian grain trapped by the Russian invasion to be exported to safely from Black Sea ports.
Citing an unnamed source familiar with the negotiations, RIA reported “there is no optimism” for the deal to be extended – a position Moscow has frequently reiterated in recent weeks.
“Our practice shows that it is the negotiations between the two leaders that can change the situation, the current difficult period is no exception,” said the source quoted by RIA.
“Today, that remains the only hope.”
Erdogan said on Saturday he was pressing Russia to extend the grain deal, which is currently set to expire on July 17, for at least three months, and announced a visit by Putin in August.
The Kremlin said over the weekend that no phone calls were planned and there was no certainty that the two leaders would meet.
Ankara angered Moscow with its July 8 decision to release five detained Ukrainian commanders from a unit that for weeks defended a steel plant in the Ukrainian city of Mariupol to Kiev, with the Kremlin claiming Ankara violated the agreements .
(Reporting by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; Editing by Lincoln Feast.)