Putin & Erdogan Analyze Food Exports and Bilateral Cooperation

On Friday, Russian President Vladimir Putin thanked his Türkiye's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan for his role in signing the agreement for the export of Ukrainian grain and Russian food.

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"With your direct participation and with the mediation of the United Nations Secretariat, the problem related to Ukrainian grain supplies from Black Sea ports was solved," Putin said at the beginning of a meeting held in Sochi, a coastal city located in Southern Russia.

The Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov mentioned that Putin and Erdogan will talk about how the journey of the first grain shipment from the Ukrainian port of Odessa passed. He was referring to the freighter Razoni, which carried 26,500 tons of corn from Odessa to Lebanon across the Bosporus Strait on Monday. Three other ships will depart on Friday from the Ukrainian ports of Odessa, Chornomosk and Pvidenny.

At the Sochi meeting, the Russian President also pointed out that Europeans should "thank" Erdogan for the regular and stable flow of Russian gas into their territory through the Turkish Stream.

"Unlike all other routes for our hydrocarbon supplies, the Turkish Stream works correctly, dynamically, and without failure... It has become one of the main arteries for the supply of Russian gas to Europe," Putin said.

President Erdogan stressed that "from Turkey's point of view, Russia plays a special role in the world arena," adding that he hopes the Sochi meeting "will open a new page in Russian-Turkish relations."

The Turkish leader traveled accompanied by a large delegation that includes the ministers of foreign affairs, defense, energy, finance, agriculture, and trade. Putin and Erdogan will also address the Sirian situation, for which Hakan Fidan, the head of the Turkish intelligence service, has also traveled to Sochi.

Erdogan wants to get the Russian approval for a new Turkish military operation against the Kurdish militias, the People's Protection Units (YPG), which operate in northern Syria.