G20 Summit: Turkiye President Erdogan hopeful of Black Sea grain deal revival

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters on September 10 that President Vladimir Putin is open to restarting the grain supply agreement.

A day after the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration called for the immediate revival of the Black Sea Grain Initiative, Turkiye President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said he is "not hopeless" about the agreement's future.

"About re-implementing the Black Sea Grain Initiative, I am not hopeless. It can restart again," Erdogan told reporters in New Delhi on September 10 at the conclusion of the G20 Leaders' Summit.

Erdogan's comments come a day after the adoption of the New Delhi Leaders' Declaration by the G20 heads of states on September 9, which said the Black Sea Grain Initiative must be re-started quickly to ensure developing and least developed countries do not suffer from high prices.

"In this context, emphasising the importance of sustaining food and energy security, we called for the cessation of military destruction or other attacks on relevant infrastructure," the Leaders' Declaration added.

Also Read: Russia condemned for pulling out of Black Sea Grain Initiative

On July 17, Russia withdrew from the agreement that allowed grain to be moved from Ukraine to Africa and Asia to tackle the food crisis caused by the war, which pushed up prices to eye-watering levels. Russia has said it will honour the deal after "the part of the Black Sea deal related to Russia is implemented".

According to the United Nations – which helped broker the initiative along with Turkiye in July 2022 – more than 32 million tonnes of food commodities were exported from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports to 45 countries under the initiative to help bring down spiralling prices in the aftermath of Russia's attack on Ukraine.

However, 43 percent of these food commodities went to Western nations, Erdogan said, with Russia having previously cited insufficient grain exports by Ukraine to poor countries as a reason for putting an end to it.

Earlier in the day on September 10, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in New Delhi that Putin has said several times that the Black Sea Grain Initiative could be restarted.

Also read: Global South prevented G20 agenda from being stirred towards Ukraine: Russian Foreign Minister

Russia and Ukraine are major exporters of wheat, barley and edible oils, among other food products that poor and developing nations rely on.

Erdogan met President Vladimir Putin in Sochi, Russia last week, where it was announced that Turkey would ship 1 million tonne of Russian grain at a reduced cost to Africa with assistance from Qatar.

Erdogan also said that any grain corridor initiative that isolates Russia was bound to fail.

"We believe that any step that may escalate the tensions in the Black Sea should be avoided. In order to support global food supply security, we are going to bring together the Food Supply Security Study Group. Both Russia, Ukraine, the United Nations, and stakeholders from the international community, we are going to hold continuous talks," he added.