UN to follow Putin's visit to Türkiye 'closely' amid efforts for new grain deal

The UN said Monday it will be following Russian President Vladimir Putin's upcoming visit to Türkiye "closely" amid efforts to broker a new mechanism to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine and Russia.

"We're not involved, as far as I know, in this bilateral visit, but obviously we will be looking closely to what comes out," spokesperson Stephane Dujarric told reporters.

Putin is slated to visit Türkiye later this month.

Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said Sunday that after its groundbreaking work on the Black Sea grain deal, globally hailed as averting a global food crisis, now Türkiye wants to establish a new mechanism for exporting grains from Ukraine and Russia.

"There are ongoing discussions, particularly involving the UN, Russia, Ukraine, and Türkiye for how can we develop a new method for the transportation and logistics of grain to the world markets, focusing primarily on the Black Sea," Fidan told a private news channel on Sunday.

"The previous grain agreement, as you know, operated within a specific mechanism. Now it has been observed that there is a possibility to proceed with a different mechanism than that. Currently, we are trying to materialize that possibility," he added.

Stating that Ukrainian ships cannot use Black Sea routes due to the risk of attacks, while Russian ships have been cut off from grain sales, Fidan said mutually solving the grain problem will benefit all countries.

"Currently, there are some Ukrainian ships de facto transporting grain. They are being loaded with grain and being taken away. This place is untouched by Russians. In fact, we want to formalize this de facto situation a bit with the current new mechanism," said Fidan.

The grain crisis has caused a food crisis in undeveloped countries and has seriously affected global prices, causing humanitarian problems, he said, referring to the situation after the Black Sea Grain Initiative of 2022-2023, co-negotiated and co-implemented by Türkiye and the UN, unexpectedly collapsed.