Turkiye will establish a coordination center between Russia, and Ukraine to facilitate grain exports from Ukraine to international markets for combatting global food crisis.
The announcement was made on Thursday following a four-way meeting held in Istanbul, which Turkish Defence Minister Hulusi Akar described as "positive and constructive".
"An important step was taken to contribute to the solution of the food crisis, all details regarding the safe shipment of grain and other food-loaded vessels by sea were discussed". Akar said.
“All sides identified common ground such as navigational safety on transfer routes and joint controls at the entry and exit of ports. The effectiveness of the coordination would especially depend upon the Russians’ guarantee of safety for shipments leaving Ukrainian Black Sea ports and transport along the prescribed routes,” he said.
The representatives of Ukraine and Russia will gather in Turkiye next week to review the agreement’s details and sign documents, Akar stated.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, almost five months ago and the ongoing conflict, exports of essential supplies such as grains, wheat, and fertilisers across the world have been hit hard.
Earlier, Turkiye held high-level meetings between Ukraine and Russia to end the ongoing conflict through diplomacy.
However, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy welcomed the progress in a statement and hailed the "significant efforts to restore the supply of food to the world market".
He stated that he is "grateful to the United Nations and Turkey for their respective efforts." Zelenskyy said "If it is possible to remove the Russian threat to shipping in the Black Sea, it will remove the severity of the global food crisis"
