Erdoğan hopes for Putin visit in August after grain deal collapse

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he hoped that Russian leader Vladimir Putin would visit Türkiye in August, as Ankara works to revive a key deal that allowed Ukraine to export its grain via the Black Sea.

“There’s no precise date yet but my foreign minister and intelligence head are holding talks,” Erdoğan told reporters after Friday prayers at a mosque in Istanbul.

“I believe that this visit will take place in August,” he said.

The remarks came after Erdoğan’s office on Wednesday said the two leaders had agreed on Putin’s visit. No timetable was provided but a senior Turkish official said discussions between Ankara and Moscow are ongoing for a visit in late August.

Erdoğan last month said the trip could occur as soon as this month, during a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

The Kremlin on Thursday said the time, place and date of the upcoming meeting between the two leaders would be coordinated via diplomatic channels.

Türkiye has positioned itself as an intermediary in the Russia-Ukraine conflict and Erdoğan was a key player in brokering the now-collapsed Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2022 alongside the United Nations. The deal allowed for the safe passage of Ukrainian grain shipments via the Black Sea.

Moscow withdrew from the accord on July 17, accusing the West of hampering its own grain and fertilizer exports, and has since attacked Ukrainian agricultural and port infrastructure. It has said that it was ready to return to the deal once an accompanying agreement concerning Russia was implemented.

Erdoğan said last month he hoped Putin’s planned visit could lead to the restoration of the grain deal, and called on Western countries to consider Russia’s demands.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba said Thursday that Erdoğan was the only person who can convince Russia to return to the initiative.

Moscow exited the deal complaining that the international community had failed to ensure that Russia could also freely export its grain and fertilizer.

Russia’s grain and fertilizer exports are not subject to Western sanctions imposed on Moscow over its military actions in Ukraine. But Moscow has said restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance have been a barrier to shipments.

In talks with Putin on Wednesday, Erdoğan emphasized the importance of avoiding steps that could jeopardize the resumption of the wartime accord that he described as a “bridge of peace,” the Presidency said in a statement.

He vowed Türkiye would press ahead with “intensive efforts” and diplomacy to reestablish the grain deal. Erdoğan told Putin that the long-term deactivation of the initiative “will not benefit anyone” and that countries in need would suffer the most, according to the presidency.

For his part, Putin asked Erdoğan to help Russia export its grain to African countries vulnerable to food shortages.

On Friday, the Turkish president said he was on the same page with Russia over the need to export grain to less developed African countries.

“We will turn the grain from the Black Sea into flour and transport them to poor, less developed African countries,” Erdoğan said.

The grain deal aimed to alleviate a global food crisis, and grain prices have risen since Moscow let it expire. Ukraine and Russia are both leading grain exporters.

Nearly 33 million tons of Ukrainian grain was exported while the Black Sea deal was operational.