The senior Turkish official for relations with the EU stated on Tuesday that Turkey will take all the steps required to prolong the grain deal with Ukraine, Anadolu Agency reported.
Faruk Kaymakci, the deputy foreign minister and head of the ministry’s division for EU issues, expressed his hope that the term will be prolonged.
Speaking at the Food Crisis Conference at the European Parliament in Brussels on behalf of the Turkish Presidency’s Directorate of Communications and the EU-Türkiye Friendship Group, Kaymakci emphasized that broadening the Ukraine grain deal for a year or longer would be useful and convenient for raising predictability and production while reducing anxieties in the food markets.
He also noted that Turkey will try its best to communicate to the Russian side Ukraine’s genuine requests and demands.
Despite the COVID-19 epidemic and the effects of climate change on food and agriculture, Kaymakci claimed that wars throughout the world were mostly to blame for the adverse effects.
Later, Kaymakci discussed Turkey’s involvement in sustainable food production in the EU and how “the Black Sea Grain Initiative” avoided a worldwide food disaster on Twitter.
On July 22, Turkey, the UN, Russia, and Ukraine reached a pact in Istanbul to restore grain shipments from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports, which were halted following the beginning of the Russia-Ukraine war in February.
The sides are now in talks on extending the Ukraine grain deal and expanding it to cover Russian exports of grain and fertilizer after the deadline of November 19.
