On Wednesday, Russian Ambassador to Turkiye Aleksei Erkhov said that Moscow was actively exploring alternatives to the Black Sea Grain Initiative in contacts with partners.
"About 33 million tonnes of grain were shipped to the countries in need during the year under the grain deal, which has proven its success and benefits. Our efforts are aimed at resuming the grain deal and no other work is being done except this," the source was quoted as saying by the newspaper.
"However, other countries are working on creating alternative routes. We are following this process closely. An important issue in this process is to ensure the safe passage of merchant ships through the straits. We are not talking about any problems in connection with the passage of ships through the straits," the source added.
Meanwhile, it was reported earlier that Ankara and Washington are in talks on on alternatives to the grain deal were at the stage of proposals and discussions, there are no specifics, a source participating in the negotiations in Turkiye told Sputnik.
"These were proposals from the West, in particular the United States. So far, everything was at the stage of discussions, there are no specific decisions or a plan yet," the source said.
On August 15, a American business daily reported that the United States, Turkiye, Ukraine and neighboring countries are in talks to boost the use of alternative grain export routes. The talks come following Russia’s decision to suspend the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
On July 18, the Turkiye- and UN-mediated Black Sea Grain Initiative, which provided for a humanitarian corridor to allow exports of Ukrainian grain over the past year, expired, as Russia did not renew its participation in the deal. Moscow emphasized that the deal's component on facilitating Russian grain and fertilizer exports had not been fulfilled, specifically with regard to reconnecting Russian banks to SWIFT and unblocking the Tolyatti-Odesa ammonia pipeline.