Turkiye presses for grain deal to bolster influence

ANKARA — Turkiye, serving as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine, is working to revive the Black Sea Grain Initiative to bolster its regional influence and secure cheap grains, analysts said.

The agreement, which had been brokered by Turkiye and the United Nations in July 2022 in Istanbul, encountered a setback when Russia decided to withdraw from it on July 17, alleging unfulfilled obligations by its counterparts.

Since then, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, his ministers, and diplomats have been working intensively to revive the deal.

The Turkish leader held phone talks with his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts and said Russian President Vladimir Putin may visit Turkiye in August to discuss the grain deal.

Regional influence, prestige, and cheap grains are the main incentives for Turkiye to revive the grain initiative, Batu Coskun, an Ankara-based independent political risk analyst, told Xinhua.

"There is a very significant prestige component to it, and Turkiye emerged as a very significant interlocutor between Ukraine and Russia," he said.

In Coskun's view, Ankara wants to use a possible re-enactment of the grain deal as a means of rapprochement between Moscow and Kyiv.

Turkiye's leadership has been keen to capitalize on its previous diplomatic success with the grain deal which it sees as a step toward permanent peace, he said.

Kerim Has, a Moscow-based analyst, believes that economic reasons are at the top of Turkiye's motivation for the reinstatement of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, as the country reels from economic woes, especially food inflation.

"More than 80 percent of the wheat imported by Turkiye comes from Russia and Ukraine. For a long time, Turkiye is the number one client of Russia," he told Xinhua.

Russia's withdrawal from the initiative, which allowed the export of Ukrainian grain across the Black Sea, resulted in skyrocketing global grain prices, sparking concerns about a looming food crisis.

Turkiye has said Western countries should try to address Russia's complaints and that it hopes Russia would return to the deal.

During his televised remarks on Aug 8, the Turkish leader warned against the specter of escalating military conflict in the Black Sea after Moscow's withdrawal from the deal.

"Extending the war to the Black Sea would be a complete disaster for our entire region," Erdogan said, adding his country would continue to implement the 1936 Montreux Convention, a document that asserts Turkiye's control of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles.

Xinhua