Russia on Friday said it has not rule out a possible resumption of the now-defunct Black Sea grain deal.
On Thursday, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, speaking after a meeting with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said they had discussed navigational security in the Black Sea, including the grain deal.
He said efforts have started for the revitalization of the Black Sea Grain Initiative and that Ankara is ready for all kinds of initiatives, including mediation, to create a basis for peace.
Russia allowed the Turkish- and United Nations-brokered deal, which for a year facilitated Russian and Ukrainian agricultural exports via the Black Sea, to expire in July 2023.
At the time, it said that it would only renew the deal if obstacles to its own agricultural goods reaching world markets were lifted.
Asked about a possible renewal of the deal on Friday in light of Erdoğan’s comments, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said: “The Kremlin does not rule out any agreements. The Kremlin has said, President (Vladimir) Putin has repeatedly said, that he is open to dialogue.”
Peskov said any agreement on grain would have to be reached as part of a package of issues “within the general context of the current situation.”
