Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan met with Venezuelan President to sign trade deals, and the Turkish Foreign Minister met with the Russian representative to address Ukraine’s grain stranded in the Black Sea.
More than a hundred days after the start of Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, the Ankara government is mediating the liberation of the Black Sea, but neither side has managed to reach an agreement to avoid an imminent world food crisis. More than 20 million tons of grain are stranded in Ukraine as Russia continues its attacks and wheat prices soar.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu in Ankara on Wednesday to discuss the creation of boarding lanes. The aim is to enable Ukrainian grain to reach the international market from the Black Sea, which borders both Turkey, Russia and Ukraine coasts.
Çavuşoğlu said Turkey is ready to work with the United Nations to create this safe route that will then flow through the Bosphorus to the rest of the world. An important issue remains the removal of mines protecting the Ukrainian port of Odessa. Moscow gives the responsibility of paving the way to Kiev. But Kyiv wants assurances that Russian forces will not launch an amphibious assault on Odessa. Faced with this impasse, Turkey offers to host a new meeting in Istanbul to discuss these details.
Strengthening the Ankara-Moscow alliance in Syria
A win for the Turkish government at this meeting was Russia’s reaffirmation of its support for the military offensive that Turkey intends to relaunch in northern Syria. Turkey receives reinforcements from Moscow, which it lost in 2019 from the United States, which draws troops from strategic cities in northern Syria. It is precisely Washington that the Ankara government now wants to call for negotiations. The Turkish Foreign Minister reiterated that there is an increasing threat to Turkey from the Kurdish armed group PKK and the People’s Protection Units, the Syrian branch on the border.
There is a three-year agreement with the US and Russia, which have troops in Syria, to clear the region of terrorists. Therefore, the Ankara government argues that it has the right to wait for the fulfillment of these commitments. In response to Moscow’s support, Turkish Foreign Minister Çavuşoğlu supported Russia’s call to lift international sanctions if an agreement on the transport of Ukrainian grain is signed. But for now, it seems unlikely that the White House will agree to easing.
Venezuela and Turkey vs. the USA
Another country feeling the economic sanctions of the White House was welcomed by Turkey on Wednesday: Venezuela. Nicolas Maduro traveled to Ankara to expand trade deals and add to Tayyip Erdogan’s anti-American chorus. Turkey was already an ally of Venezuela, which is trying to strengthen its ties with China, Iran and Russia after the US embargoes against the government in Caracas.
The Turkish president announced that the new target for trade with Venezuela is US$3 billion, which would be more than triple the current results. In the interview made after the meeting, the USA is in the background again. Erdogan criticized Greece and NATO for this.
Tayyip Erdogan questioned why there are nine US bases in neighboring Greece, where Turkey maintains conflicting relations over territorial issues. The Turkish president accuses Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis of advising Washington not to sell military fighter jets to Turkey. He was referring to the Greek monarch’s speech last month during his visit to the US Congress, urging the US to avoid a new source of instability in NATO.
In the North Atlantic military bloc, Tayyip Erdogan reiterated that it is a security, not an organization that supports terrorism. Again, the Turkish president’s tactic: sniping the US to end gun sanctions, gaining more foreign policy support and domestic popularity.
source: Noticias
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