New hope for grain deal

SGGP 08/29/2023 09:25

On August 28, Sputnik news agency quoted a source involved in the grain deal negotiations as saying that the United Nations and Türkiye are exploring the opportunity to hold talks on this issue with the Russian delegation in Istanbul, Turkey.

Cargo ship PRIMUS in the Black Sea on August 27. Photo: AP

Consider all possibilities

On the same day, a diplomatic source in Turkey revealed that a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan has been scheduled in Sochi, Russia on September 4. President Erdogan intends to raise the issue of resuming the Black Sea grain deal. In addition, the establishment of a gas center and the construction of the Akkyu nuclear power plant in Turkey may also be the main topics of the meeting. The Turkish newspaper Milliyet reported that it is likely that officials from the United Nations, Russia and Turkey will negotiate the Black Sea Grain Initiative in Istanbul. If this event is successful, negotiations with the participation of Ukraine may follow.

The Turkish government is currently studying three scenarios for the Black Sea grain deal, which was suspended on July 17. The first scenario assumes that the parties do not find a compromise solution, leading to a more serious food crisis that threatens the interests of Russia, Ukraine and the United States. The second scenario considers the possibility of unilaterally creating alternative routes for agricultural supplies, including the transportation of Ukrainian grain via the Danube River, or land routes to Europe. The third scenario assumes the resumption of the Black Sea grain corridor in the same format, immediately after certain Russian demands are met. According to the local newspaper Yeni Şafak, this is the most beneficial outcome for all parties and will help avoid a more serious food crisis at the global level.

Temporary corridor

Meanwhile, Ukraine is considering using a newly tested Black Sea grain export corridor to transport goods along the western shore of the Black Sea, near Romania and Bulgaria. A second civilian cargo ship has left the southern port of Odessa and moved to safe waters, the Ministry of Reconstruction of Ukraine said in a statement on August 27. “The PRIMUS cargo ship, flying the Liberian flag of a Singaporean operator, has left the port of Odessa. This is the second ship to use the temporary corridor for civilian ships,” the statement said. The ship is carrying steel products to Africa. Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov said on social network X that the PRIMUS ship had been anchored in the port of Odessa since February 20 last year, before the Russia-Ukraine conflict broke out.

According to the Ukrainian Navy, the new temporary humanitarian corridor will be operational from August 10. The Ukrainian Navy said that the corridor will be used by commercial ships stranded in Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, carrying goods such as grain and other agricultural products. The transportation activities in the new corridor will be recorded by a camera system installed on the ships, and broadcast to show that this is a purely “humanitarian mission” and has no military purpose.

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