After an initial meeting in June in Ankara between the Russian and Turkish foreign ministers, Turkey has established itself as the diplomatic center of negotiations to try to resolve the wheat transport crisis in the Black Sea. On Wednesday July 13, a new meeting was held in Istanbul, in the presence of representatives of Ukraine, Russia and the UN and chaired by the influential Turkish Defense Minister, Hulusi Akar.
Since the start of the invasion of Ukraine, Russian warships have blocked commercial traffic in the Black Sea, preventing in particular 130 grain cargo ships from using the Sulina and Bystre canals to reach the Danube river and supply the ports of Romania. The Ukrainian cereal route is also blocked in the direction of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles Strait, obligatory passages towards the Mediterranean.
This blockade worries international institutions, who fear that global food security will be threatened by the cessation of exports by the two giants in the cereals sector, which could lead to a considerable rise in prices, shortages and even social unrest in some countries. very dependent