Türkiye to play key role in solving world’s food crisis in coming weeks: Presidential spokesman

By Ali Kemal Akan

ANKARA (AA) - Türkiye will play a key role in solving the world’s ongoing food crisis in the coming weeks, the Turkish presidential spokesperson said Tuesday.

İbrahim Kain told journalists that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan spoke to his Russian and Ukrainian counterparts on the telephone about exporting Ukrainian agricultural products by sea.

“We have been having talks by our Ministry of Foreign Affairs and other institutions for a while, with the Ukrainian side, the Russian side and the United Nations on this issue,” said Kalin.

He said the transportation of grain, sunflower oil and fertilizer from Ukraine and Russia to international markets is of great importance, otherwise, the whole world will face a major food crisis.

Erdogan said to both leaders that Türkiye is ready to play a facilitating role, according to Kalin, who said adding Ukraine and Russia gave a positive response and stated they wanted to carry out the process through Türkiye.

“Mr. (Russian President Vladimir) Putin stated that he will give the necessary instructions to Russian Foreign Minister Mr. (Sergey) Lavrov, who will visit our country on June 8, and that there will be people in his delegation regarding this issue,” said Kalin. “We stated that the negotiations will be held here, hosted by our Minister of Foreign Affairs, Mevlut Cavusoglu. Therefore, the details of this issue will become clearer during this visit next week. As Türkiye, we are ready to start this as soon as possible.”

Stating that there are issues that need to be technically negotiated and resolved, Kalin said “All these issues will be decided in the meetings to be held in Türkiye in the next one to two weeks, and after that, Türkiye will have undertaken a very important task in preventing the world food crisis.”

In response to a question about if there will be a visit from Ukraine, Kalin said, "There is no planned visit at the moment, but our doors are always open to our Ukrainian friends."