ANKARA (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 21st November, 2022) Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Monday he had spoken to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres to discuss Russian President Vladimir Putin's proposal for free supplies of grain processed into flour by Ankara to low-income countries.
In September, Putin said that almost all grain exported from Ukraine under a UN-brokered deal was being sent not to countries in need but to the European Union. The Russian leader expressed Moscow's readiness to supply low-income countries with the entire volume of grain intended for them under the grain deal, for free. In November, Erdogan said he had agreed with Putin on the possibility of sending free Russian grain and fertilizers to some African countries.
"Mr. Putin has made me the following proposal: 'Let's send this grain to underdeveloped, that is, poor countries, for free.' In fact, we have planned it in such a way that we can buy wheat, turn it into flour in Turkey and then send the flour to these underdeveloped countries. As we have discussed it with Guterres, we take wheat, turn it into flour and send this flour to underdeveloped and poor countries," Erdogan told reporters.
On July 22, a deal brokered by Turkey and the United Nations was signed by Ukraine and Russia to unblock shipments of grain, food and fertilizer in the Black Sea despite hostilities. The agreement was�supposed to expire on November 19, but it was also subject to automatic extension for 120 days in the absence of objections from the parties. On November 17, the Russian Foreign Ministry said that Moscow had no objections and had authorized a technical extension of the initiative without any changes in terms and scope.
