Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Saturday he was pressuring Russia to extend by at least three months an agreement to transport grain through the Black Sea and announced a visit by President Vladimir Putin in August, Reuters reported.

Erdogan spoke at a joint press conference with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky after their meeting in Istanbul to discuss the fate of an agreement reached last year between Turkey and the United Nations that allows grain to be safely exported from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea despite the wars, Reuters noted.

Erdogan said work was underway to extend the agreement, which expires on July 17, for a longer period beyond that date.

The deal will be one of the most important topics on the agenda of his meeting with Putin next month in Turkey, Erdogan said.

“We hope that it will continue at least every three months, not every two months. We will make efforts in this regard and try to increase its duration to two years,” the Turkish leader said at a joint press conference with Zelenskyi.

Russia, dissatisfied with the fact that the provisions of the grain agreement, which concern it directly, are not being carried out, has threatened that it will not allow its extension beyond July 17.

Zelenskyi, on duty before the summit in Vilnius

The President of Ukraine arrived in Turkey on Friday after trips to Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Slovakia. He made a mini-tour of those NATO capitals to urge them to take concrete steps at next week’s summit to give Kyiv the membership in the alliance that Erdogan says Ukraine deserves.

Erdogan and Zelenskyi also discussed another key issue of Erdogan’s future talks with Putin – the issue of prisoner exchange, which, according to the Ukrainian leader, was the first on the agenda. “I hope we will get a result soon,” Erdogan said for his part. Zelensky said he would wait for the results before commenting, but said the discussion was about the details of the return of all detainees, including children deported to Russia and other groups.

“We are working on the return of our prisoners, political prisoners, Crimean Tatars,” he said, referring to representatives of the Muslim community of Ukraine on the peninsula annexed by Russia in 2014. “Our partners have all the lists. We are really working on it,” Zelensky assured.

Erdogan said the issue could also be resolved in his contacts with the Russian leader ahead of his visit. “If we have any phone conversations before that, we will also discuss that,” he promised.

Russia appreciates Erdogan’s mediation

The Kremlin said it would closely monitor the talks, saying Putin highly valued Erdogan’s mediation in efforts to resolve the conflict in Ukraine. “As for future contacts between Putin and Erdogan, we do not rule them out in the near future,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said before the talks in Istanbul between Erdogan and Zelensky.

Turkey, a NATO member, managed to maintain warm relations with both Russia and Ukraine during the 16-month war, and helped with a prisoner exchange last year. Turkey has not joined its Western allies in imposing economic sanctions against Russia, but has also supplied weapons to Ukraine and demanded respect for its sovereignty.

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