Earlier this week, Moscow said it had no choice but to continue its more-than-year-long offensive in Ukraine, seeing no diplomatic solution.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said that all peace talks with Ukraine should aim at creating a “new world order” and take into account “Russian interests, Russian concerns”.
Russia has long said it was leading a battle against United States dominance on the world stage and maintains that the offensive in Ukraine is part of that battle.
Earlier this week, Moscow said it had no choice but to continue its more-than-year-long offensive in Ukraine, seeing no diplomatic solution.
“Any negotiation should be based on consideration of Russian interests and Russian concerns,” Lavrov said Friday after a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu in Ankara.
“It should be about the principles on which the new world order will be based,” he said, adding that Russia rejects a “unipolar world order led by ‘one hegemon'”.
Cavusoglu, whose country hosted talks between Russia and Ukraine last year, called for the resumption of dialogue and expressed “concern that the war will escalate in the spring”.
UN-brokered grain deal
Russia, meanwhile, has threatened to bypass the United Nations’ grain deal unless barriers to agricultural exports are removed.
Talks in Turkey agreed that the removal of barriers was a necessary condition for the agreement to be extended beyond next month.
The Black Sea Grains Agreement, first signed and extended twice last July, is a UN attempt to alleviate a food crisis that predated Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but has been exacerbated by the most deadly war in Europe since World War II.
Lavrov said he and Cavusoglu discussed “a failure” to implement the terms of the deal, adding that Russia could work out of it if Western countries enforce what he says are obstacles to agricultural exports that become more difficult.
The deal ensures the safe passage of grains and other raw materials from Ukrainian ports despite a Russian naval blockade.
Along with Lavrov, Cavusoglu told a press conference that Turkey was determined to extend the deal beyond mid-May.
“We attach importance to the continuation of the agreement … not only for the export of grain and fertilizer from Russia and Ukraine, but also for stopping the world food crisis,” said Cavusoglu.
“We also agree that barriers to Russian grain and fertilizer exports should be removed. Issues need to be resolved to further extend the grain deal.”
Russia and Ukraine are two of the world’s leading producers of agricultural commodities and major players in the markets for wheat, barley, maize, rapeseed, canola oil, sunflower seed and sunflower oil. Russia is also dominant in the fertilizer market.
While Russia’s food and fertilizer exports are not subject to sweeping Western sanctions, Moscow says restrictions on payments, logistics and insurance are a hindrance.