War in Ukraine: Turkey welcomes Lavrov and wants to keep a mediating role

Russian Foreign Minister (right), Sergei Lavrov, and his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Cavusoglu, in August 2018, in Moscow (Illustration image).

REUTERS/Maxim Shemetov

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The head of Russian diplomacy, Sergei Lavrov, is expected by his Turkish counterpart, Mevlüt Cavusoglu in Ankara on Wednesday, for discussions on the resumption of Ukrainian grain exports.

Allied with Ukraine, to which it provides combat drones, Turkey is nevertheless careful to preserve its image as a mediator between kyiv and Moscow.

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With our correspondent in Istanbul,

Anne Andlauer

Turkish navy ships to demine Ukrainian ports, then escort ships loaded with grain in the Black Sea.

This is one of the options considered in these negotiations which involve Turkey, Russia, Ukraine and the United Nations. 

Turkish Defense Minister Hulusi Akar said on Tuesday that the discussions had "made

good progress

", but that they still had to settle the practical details of securing these "

grain corridors

".

The head of Turkish diplomacy Mevlüt Çavusoglu is counting on the creation of a “ 

corridor observation center

 ” in Istanbul.

Need a victory on the diplomatic front for Ankara

Vis-à-vis its Western allies, who have so far shown understanding in the face of its refusal to impose sanctions on Russia, Turkey's position

is beginning to become delicate

 due to the failure of its attempts mediation to obtain a ceasefire between the two belligerents.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan therefore needs a step forward on the diplomatic front, and he is posing as a mediator in the wheat crisis.

There is all the more interest in that his country is itself dependent on wheat from Russia and Ukraine, which represented respectively 78% and 9% of its imports before the war.

►Also listen: Accents d'Europe - Bread, soon a luxury product?

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