Erdogan says believes Putin wants continuation of Ukraine grain deal

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan made the statement at Ataturk Airport ahead of his visit to Saudi Arabia, the first stop on his Gulf tour.

"We will travel to Jeddah, the first stop of our visit, which includes Saudi Arabia, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates, and the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. We have made significant progress in relations with the Gulf countries, with whom we share deep historical and fraternal ties. After the earthquake of February 6, we received all financial and moral support from those brothers. On this occasion, they have shown full solidarity with Türkiye in many areas, from the supply of containers to humanitarian aid from these friendly and brotherly countries. On behalf of my country and my people, I would like to thank our brothers once again,” TRT Haber quotes the president as saying.

“We continue our work in line with our goal of creating a zone of peace, stability, and prosperity around Türkiye. The most important step for this is to strengthen our relations with the countries of the region. We want to extend the solid foundation on which our relations are built to a broad base of cooperation. Our agenda will be joint investment and commercial activities. We will look at what we can do together with win-win policies,” Erdogan stated.

The head of state noted that the volume of bilateral trade with the Gulf countries increased from $1.6 billion to $22 billion: "We will look for ways to further increase this figure in connection with business forums. The crises in the Islamic world require close consultation and cooperation between Türkiye and the Gulf countries. The last stop of our Gulf tour will be the United Arab Emirates, where our relations have developed in all fields.”

According to him, the Black Sea Grain Initiative has already gone down in history as an important diplomatic success: “Thanks to the initiative, more than 33 million tonnes of grain products have been shipped to world markets. Many countries managed to avoid being dragged into a food crisis.”

“In recent days, we have intensified our diplomatic efforts. Despite the statement made today, I believe that my friend [Vladimir] Putin wants this humanitarian bridge to continue. When we meet Putin in our country in August, we will consult on paving the way for Russian grain fertilisers and shipments," the president added.