Turkey’s president has said that he and Putin agreed that Russian grains sent under the Black Sea export deal should go to poor African countries for free.
“In my phone call with Vladimir Putin, he said ‘Let’s send this grain to countries such as Djibouti, Somalia and Sudan for free’ – and we agreed,” Recep Tayyip Erdogan said in a speech to businesspeople in Istanbul.
His remarks on Friday came two days after Moscow resumed its participation in the UN and Turkish-brokered grain agreement, ending four days of non-cooperation that still saw exports continue from Ukrainian ports.
Putin has said that even if Russia withdraws from the deal again, it will substitute the entire volume of grain destined for the “poorest countries” for free from its own stocks.
Source: Aljazeera.com