Turkish Deputy Foreign Minister Sedat Önal and his Russian counterpart Sergei Vershinin began two days of talks in Istanbul on Thursday to examine the current status of the grain export agreement signed indirectly between Kiev and Moscow, with Turkey as the mediating country.
During his visit, the Russian diplomat will visit the Joint Coordination Center in Istanbul that monitors the implementation of the drainage agreement between Russia, Ukraine, Turkey and the UN, the Russian Embassy has reported on its Twitter account on Thursday.
Ankara and Moscow will also exchange views on the civil war in Syria, amid Turkish preparations for a new offensive against Kurdish militias in northern Syria, which Ankara considers terrorist organizations, according to the Russian note.
Russia and Ukraine agreed in mid-November to extend the agreement reached in July for the export of grain from Ukrainian ports, the United Nations has confirmed, shortly after Kiev confirmed that the parties had agreed to extend its validity for a period of 120 days.
