Erdogan-Putin Meeting Scheduled In Sochi For Early September

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will travel to Russia in the coming days to meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

There are two assumptions regarding the date of the meeting: Bloomberg maintains that it will take place on September 8, while sources from Middle East Eye claim it should happen as early as September 4.

According to a representative of the AKP (Justice and Development Party led by Erdogan), the meeting in Sochi will take place “soon.” In any case, the meeting of the two leaders will provide an opportunity to return to the discussion of the very hot topic related to the export of wheat through the Black Sea. The deal expired in July, and the UN was unable to come up with a new solution: Putin refused, reasoning that the obligations signed under the old agreement had not been fulfilled. Ankara has been trying for weeks to convince Russia to come to a new deal.

Meanwhile, according to information from the Kremlin, Putin has accepted the invitation of his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping and will go on an official visit to China in October to participate in the Silk Road (One Belt, One Road) Forum. Putin’s trip to China will be the first foreign trip by the Russian president since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for the alleged deportation of minors. The mandate has already forced the Kremlin leader to cancel his participation in the BRICS summit, which was held August 22-24 in Johannesburg, South Africa.