Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan discussed steps taken by Ankara to resume the Black Sea Grain Initiative with Secretary General of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Jens Stoltenberg during a telephone conversation on Tuesday, the Turkish Foreign Ministry said on Tuesday.
"Today a phone conversation took place between Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg. During the talk, the parties discussed the latest developments in Ukraine, steps taken to 'revive' the grain corridor, as well as Sweden's NATO membership," the ministry said in a statement.
On Monday, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin met in the Russian city of Sochi to discuss the situation around the Black Sea Grain Initiative, which expired in July, as well as a number of other issues. The meeting did not to produce any joint documents.
During the meeting, Putin reaffirmed Russia's readiness to "consider the possibility of reviving the grain deal," when "all the agreements recorded in it are fully implemented," adding that the country intends to continue exporting food and fertilizers and improve the situation in the global agricultural sector.
Moreover, the president noted that the state is "close to complete" negotiations ob the food supply with six African countries.
On Tuesday, Erdogan revealed that the United Nations has proposed a SWIFT-derived mediation mechanism for paying for Russian food, and is working on the issue of insurance for Russian ships.
On July 18, the Turkey- and UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Initiative, or the grain deal, which provided for a humanitarian corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain over the past year, expired, as Russia did not renew its participation in the deal.
Moscow said that the deal's component on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports had not been fulfilled.