Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Friday pledged to ship grain and fertilizer to some of the world’s least developed countries, especially in Africa, as part of the agreement for the departure of ships from Ukrainian ports.
«We will make sure that ships with grain reach all countries in need, starting with Somalia, Djibouti and Sudan, which are experiencing problems because of a severe food crisis and famine,» he has detailed.
Thus, Erdogan has revealed that in a conversation with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, the latter conveyed to him the need to «send duty-free grain» to these countries. «In this matter we are on the same page,» he said, as reported by the Turkish state news agency, Anatolia.
The Turkish president has also charged against the mentality of perceiving Europe as «a garden» while the rest of the world is «a jungle», in an apparent reference to the statements in this sense by the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Policy, Josep Borrell.
«We do not expect those who carry out colonialism using new ways and methods to adopt a posture of conscience in the face of crises,» Erdogan has zanelled, after Borrell claimed in October that «most of the rest of the world is a jungle, and the jungle could invade the garden,» statements for which he later apologized.
The Turkish president’s words have come two days after Moscow agreed to reactivate the agreement reached in July for the departure of ships loaded with grain from Ukrainian ports, in the framework of the invasion unleashed in February on Putin’s orders.
The United Nations and Turkey acted as mediators prior to the signing of the agreement in July and also during the implementation of the commitments made. For his part, Erdogan has launched a new round of contacts with the parties to try to reach an agreement on an extension of this measure.
