ISTANBUL , Jun 8 (AP)– Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu says that a plan by the United Nations for a grain corridor to carry Ukrainian agricultural products was “feasible.”
Speaking alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov at a news conference Wednesday in Ankara following talks, Cavusoglu said the plan required negotiation between Moscow and Kyiv.
There was no Ukrainian representative at the Ankara meeting. But Kyiv has expressed concerns that if it removes mines from its Black Sea ports, Russia would be more able to attack its southern coast.
Cavusoglu also said Moscow’s request that its involvement in implementing the U.N. plan result in the easing of international sanctions against it was “quite legitimate.”
“If the whole world is in need of the products to be exported by Ukraine and the Russian Federation, then a method needs to be established,” he said, adding that he hoped “technical preparations” could be made “as soon as possible.”
Ukraine is one of the world’s largest exporters of wheat, corn and sunflower oil, but the war and a Russian blockade of its ports have halted much of that flow, endangering global food supplies.
An estimated 22 million tons of grains are sitting in silos in Ukraine. Russia is also a major exporter of food and fertilizer.