Turkey offers to extend the “grain agreement” for a year ahead

Ankara will propose to extend the operation of the Black Sea Grain Initiative for another year – until November 2023.

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar spoke about Turkey’s plans to continue the operation of the “grain corridor”, reports CNN Turk.

“We said that the conflict is on one side and the humanitarian conditions are on another side. Ukraine gave a written guarantee to Russia through Turkey. We will offer to extend the agreement for another year,” said Akar.

Recently, russia claimed that, despite its return to the Grain Agreement, a decision on the extension of the Initiative in November had not yet been made.

On October 29, russian federation suspended participation in the Istanbul Agreements due to attacks on its ships in Sevastopol. The terrorist country returned to the Istanbul Agreements on November 2. Then the Ministry of Defense of the occupiers stated that russia allegedly received “written guarantees” from Ukraine about not using the “grain corridor” to conduct hostilities against russian federation. This statement was later denied by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine.

Earlier, they started talking about the extension of the grain agreement at the UN. During the session of the UN General Assembly, it became known that UN Secretary General António Guterres and his team are working on extending the Istanbul Agreements for a year ahead.

It is currently unknown why the parties are planning to agree on a one-year agreement. Agreeing on the Initiative for a year is actually the legitimization of russia’s influence on shipping in the Black Sea region. Also, Turkey, without a doubt, will receive its preferences from the continuation of the Initiative. On the other hand, for Ukraine, the extension of the Agreement can become a guarantee of stable grain exports for at least a year, despite the war. There have been no official comments from the state authorities of Ukraine regarding the extension of the agreement yet.