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Türkiye’s Erdogan to Visit Russia ‘Soon’ to Discuss Grain Deal

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he speaks as he attends the Justice and Development (AK) Party's 22nd Foundation Anniversary Event at ATO Congresium, in Ankara, on August 24, 2023. (AFP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he speaks as he attends the Justice and Development (AK) Party's 22nd Foundation Anniversary Event at ATO Congresium, in Ankara, on August 24, 2023. (AFP)
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Türkiye’s Erdogan to Visit Russia ‘Soon’ to Discuss Grain Deal

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he speaks as he attends the Justice and Development (AK) Party's 22nd Foundation Anniversary Event at ATO Congresium, in Ankara, on August 24, 2023. (AFP)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan gestures as he speaks as he attends the Justice and Development (AK) Party's 22nd Foundation Anniversary Event at ATO Congresium, in Ankara, on August 24, 2023. (AFP)

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will visit Russia soon to discuss the collapsed United Nations deal that had allowed Black Sea exports of Ukrainian grain, a spokesperson for Türkiye’s ruling AK Party said on Monday.

The UN- and Türkiye-brokered deal lasted a year but ended last month after Moscow quit. Ankara is seeking to persuade Russia to return to the agreement, under which Odesa's seaports shipped tens of millions of tons of grain.

Since the grain-export deal collapsed, Russian forces have targeted Ukrainian ports with volleys of missiles and kamikaze drones.

Omer Celik, the AK Party spokesperson, said Erdogan would visit Russia's Black Sea resort of Sochi "soon" but did not specify whether he would meet Russian President Vladimir Putin.

"After this visit there may be developments and new stages may be reached regarding" the grain deal, he told reporters.

The Kremlin said on Friday there was an understanding the two leaders will meet in person soon.

Bloomberg cited two anonymous sources in reporting that Erdogan is expected to meet Putin in Russia next week, possibly on Sept. 8, before he travels to a G20 meeting in India.  

Earlier, the TASS news agency cited Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova as saying that Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and his Turkish counterpart Hakan Fidan will hold talks in Moscow "in the nearest future".

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Russia's Medvedev Says Ukraine Joining NATO Would Mean War

Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS./File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS./File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
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Russia's Medvedev Says Ukraine Joining NATO Would Mean War

Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS./File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights
Russia's Security Council's Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev attends a meeting of the Council for Science and Education at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in the Moscow region's city of Dubna, Russia June 13, 2024. Sputnik/Alexei Maishev/Pool via REUTERS./File Photo Purchase Licensing Rights

Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said the accession of Ukraine to NATO would be a declaration of war against Moscow and only "prudence" on behalf of the alliance could prevent the planet being shattered into pieces.

The leaders of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization pledged at their summit last week to support Ukraine on an "irreversible path to full Euro-Atlantic integration, including NATO membership," but left open when that membership could happen.

Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council and a leading voice among the Kremlin's hawks, told the news outlet Argumenty I Fakty that Ukraine's membership would go beyond a direct threat to Moscow's security.

"This, in essence, would be a declaration of war - albeit with a delay," he said in remarks published on Wednesday, Reuters reported.

"The actions that Russia's opponents have been taking against us for years, expanding the alliance ... take NATO to the point of no return."

In a standard Kremlin line since Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Medvedev said Russia did not threaten NATO but would respond to the alliance's attempts to advance its interests.

"The more such attempts there are, the harsher our answers will become," Medvedev said. "Whether this will shatter the entire planet into pieces depends solely on the prudence of (NATO) side."

Medvedev also reiterated Moscow's line that the appointment of Mark Rutte as the head of NATO will not change the alliance's stance.

"For Russia, nothing will change, since key decisions are made not by NATO member countries, but by one state - the United States," Medvedev said.

NATO was created after World War Two as a defensive bullwark against a feared Soviet invasion of western Europe, but its subsequent inclusion of countries in eastern Europe has been viewed by the Kremlin as an act of aggression.