Erdoğan: We will tell Putin to operate the 'grain corridor'

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan stated in his statements to members of the press upon his return from Hungary that they will present the issue of reviving the grain corridor to Russian President Vladimir Putin. Stating that the purchase of F-16s from the US, defense procurement from Canada, and Sweden’s NATO membership are interconnected, President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said, “I believe that the positive developments we expect regarding both the US’s F-16 issue and Canada’s keeping its promises will accelerate our parliament’s positive view of the issue.” Speaking to reporters on his return from his trip to Hungary, Erdoğan stated that the issues of Sweden’s NATO membership and the F-16 purchase were on the agenda during his meeting with US President Joe Biden and said, “Biden made a statement along the lines of, ‘You pass this in Parliament, and I will pass it in Congress in the same way.’ (During the meeting) ‘US Secretary of State Antony Blinken and our Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan should run this process simultaneously. “If we operate this simultaneously, we will have the opportunity to pass it through parliament much more easily,” he said. Erdoğan stated that they will tell Russian President Vladimir Putin, who stated that he may visit Turkey in early 2024, “let’s do whatever it takes to operate the Grain Corridor.”