Turkey plans to lease land from other countries for crop production, which will help the country overcome the food crisis caused by Russian aggression against Ukraine and the consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Turkey is considering leasing agricultural land in 10 countries, including Ukraine, Latin America and Africa, Turkish Minister of Agriculture and Forestry Vahit Kirişci told Türkiye.
“Part of the negotiations with 10 countries, including Ukraine and some countries of Latin America and Africa, ended with an agreement, and contacts with some of them continue. Agricultural products that cannot be produced in Turkey for climatic reasons will be grown on the leased lands or the production of which is insufficient,” the publication said.
It is specified that Turkish private business will also be involved in projects on leased lands. For example, in Sudan, Turkey will grow pineapples, mangoes, avocados, rapeseed, sunflowers, corn, cotton, sesame, sugarcane and alfalfa, the production of which is insufficient in Turkey.
Türkiye specifies that the leased areas will focus on the cultivation of plants that can be used in the production of animal feed. In addition, it is planned to establish the production of wheat there, which will be processed in Turkey and then exported in the form of biscuits, pasta and bulgur.
“We want to bring modern agriculture there. We want to produce in untouched agricultural areas. There are very serious untouched areas, especially in southern Africa. We are able to grow plants in these regions,” the Turkish minister was quoted as saying.
Ankara is awaiting a response from Moscow on organizing a possible meeting between Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the UN to discuss the issue of exporting grain from Ukraine, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Saturday.
“Our position was stated very clearly. We are awaiting a response from the Russian side, both on the issue of holding the meeting and other details,” the Anadolu agency quotes him as saying.
“We stressed the Turkish side’s readiness to organize a quadripartite meeting in the UN-Turkey-Ukraine-Russia format. This is ultimately a UN initiative,” the minister said.
Cavusoglu said that during talks this week with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, he explained that the UN plan to transport grain from Ukraine by sea is the best.
Earlier this week, the Turkish Foreign Minister said that Ankara considers the UN plan to export grain from Ukraine feasible. He noted that discussions are underway on the creation of a “grain corridor” mechanism in the Black Sea with the participation of the UN, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey.
Turkey does not leave attempts to resume the dialogue between Ukraine and the Russian Federation, and also expresses its readiness to provide platforms for these negotiations, Ukrainian Ambassador to Turkey Vasily Bodnar said.
“Now Turkey does not leave attempts to resume this dialogue, they express their readiness to provide platforms for these negotiations. Today’s meeting (of the Foreign Ministers of Turkey and Russia – IF) was also aimed at finding common ground for continuing these negotiations. What was publicly stated says that they are more focused on the communication of the parties, that there is a readiness for a possible resumption, and for their part they declare their readiness to contribute to this,” Bodnar said at a briefing at the Ukraine media center on Wednesday.
He added that “so far there is no talk of any specific steps towards this, since it should be clear what conditions which side is expressing.”
“Our immediate condition is the withdrawal of Russian troops. Then the negotiations may have a chance of success and end with the signing of a certain document. Otherwise, the so-called theory of “peace in exchange for territories” does not work for us. And the Turkish side understands this very well, at least trying to find out now the position of the Russian side and help in the resumption of this dialogue,” Bodnar said.
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky says that neither he nor Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba were invited to a meeting in Ankara on June 8, which will, in particular, consider the issue of Black Sea shipping and which will be attended by the Minister of Foreign Affairs RF Sergey Lavrov.
“I was not invited. The Minister of Foreign Affairs has not been invited to date,” Zelensky said during a conversation with reporters on Monday, answering a related question.
According to him, he discussed with Turkish President Recemop Tayyip Erdogan, among others, the issue of mediation by the Turkish side in unblocking Ukrainian ports.
“For us, it is important that we are ready to produce grain… For us (important – IF) that there is a safe corridor of ships – that this or that fleet of this or that state will ensure the export of this grain to us. That’s all. And here we talked both with Britain and Turkey. Turkey is now finding a format to give us guarantees… I think because of this they are meeting with the Russians so that Russia will give Turkey guarantees that nothing will happen to their ships. I think so. But, however, the details of their meeting are unknown to me yet,” Zelensky said.
The President also said that negotiations on the export of grain are being held with the UN, as well as with the Baltic countries and Poland – on the export of some volume by rail, but this direction is not a priority due to the long delivery times. Through Odessa ports, according to him, Ukraine can export 10 million tons of grain monthly. “If now we have 22-25 million tons blocked there, but in the fall we may already have 75. What are we going to do? Therefore, we won’t be able to do without ports,” Zelensky stressed.
When asked under what conditions Ukraine can go for demining the coast of Odessa ports and who should be the guarantor for the Ukrainian side to do this, he replied: “I consider the strongest guarantee is our appropriate weapons that will be deployed in the region, the unblocking of another corridor to the port for the export of grain”.
“We are working on this with specific states, with specific anti-ship systems. We are working and are already getting a little, I can already state. I think this is the best guarantee,” Zelensky added.
Representatives of Ukraine, Russia, Turkey and the UN will gather in Istanbul in the coming days to discuss a plan of action on the situation around problems with grain exports, the Turkish Anadolu agency reports, citing its own data.
“The details of the road map will be discussed in the coming days during the meeting, which will be attended by Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and UN representatives,” the statement said.
According to Anadolu, the meeting will consider issues related to “insurance and security of ships, as well as demining the region.”
The agency indicates that it is planned to create a coordination center in Istanbul, which “should allow sending about 20 million tons of grain and sunflower seeds from Russia and Ukraine to world markets.”
President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky said that in a telephone conversation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, he discussed in detail the threat to the global food market due to the actions of the Russian Federation, which blocked the Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
“Had an important conversation with Turkish President Erdogan. About the situation in Mariupol and the need to evacuate civilians and the wounded, about the need for an immediate exchange of blocked Ukrainian military. We discussed the negotiation process with Russia, defense issues. We touched in detail on the threat to the world food market, provoked by Russia, which blocked our Black Sea ports,” Zelensky said in a video message on Monday morning.
He stressed that the rise in food prices has already reached a critical level in many countries, and this is just the beginning.
“If Russia does not seek peace, the issue of food security in many countries will turn into a matter of the physical survival of millions of people, and hence the stability of state systems. An increasing number of political leaders in the world are aware of this threat. Therefore, we expect more pressure on Russia,” he said. head of state.
