Ukraine And Turkey Continue To Discuss Black Sea Food Agreement

JAKARTA - Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday held telephone talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss the continuation of the Black Sea food deal.

"The two leaders discussed further in extending the Black Sea food corridor agreement during telephone talks held at President Zelensky's request," the Turkish Communications Directorate said on Twitter.

In his conversation, Erdogan stated that Turkey had made "intensive efforts" in maintaining peace.

Russia this week withdrew from the Black Sea food export agreement because it assessed that several parts of the deal related to Russia's interests had not been fulfilled until now.

The agreement signed by Turkey, the United Nations, Russia, and Ukraine in July last year was aimed at continuing food exports from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports that had stalled due to the Ukraine war.

The deal has been updated several times and extended over two months on May 18.

Under the agreement, the four parties formed a Joint Coordination Center last year in Istanbul to oversee the process of shipping food exports from the Black Sea.