Turkey to resolve problem of Russian grain supplies to poor African countries — Erdogan

ANKARA, January 15. /TASS/. Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed plans of free supplies of Russian agricultural products to poor countries in Africa. "Turkey is the country thanks to which the problem of the establishment of a grain corridor has been resolved. But our mission is not finished. Our goal is to process Russian grain [Russian President Vladimir Putin] continues to supply to poor countries and to deliver it to African countries. By now, 44% of agricultural products have been sent to Europe [via the grain corridor] and 14% have been sent to Africa. We will give our response by balancing the situation with supplies to poor African countries," Erdogan said on Sunday during a meeting with the youth, which was aired by the TRT television channel. Issues of grain supplies to Africa was the focus of Erdogan’s telephone call with his Russian counterpart on January 5. A package of documents geared to resolve the problem of food and fertilizer supplies on global markets was signed on July 22 in Istanbul for a term of 120 days. One of the agreements regulating grain exports from the Kiev-controlled ports of Odessa, Chernomorsk, and Yuzhny was to expire on November 19. On November 17, the agreements were extended for 120 more days. According to the Russian foreign ministry, the deal was automatically extended since there were no objections from either of the parties to it (Russia, Ukraine, Turkey, the United Nations). Read more