Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu said on Thursday that Ankara is open to cooperation with all countries to create a security corridor for exports of Ukrainian grain to the world markets.

The minister's remarks from a meeting with students at Eskişehir University were quoted by TRT television.

"We are working on creation of a safe corridor, which after clearing the water area will allow vessels with grain to take grain from Ukraine to the world markets. We are constantly being called and asked to be included in this system. Of course, we are open for cooperation with all countries. I hope to create a center in Istanbul, which will deal with these issues. We will hold technical talks in the coming days," the Turkish foreign minister said.

Cavusoglu reminded that the initiative to create a safe corridor for the export of Ukrainian grain was put forward by Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. He discussed it on 30 May in a phone conversation with Russian President Vladimir Putin, as well as with his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

"On 8 June, Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov arrives on a visit [to Turkey]. He is coming together with a military delegation. Outside of the bilateral talks, we will conduct work related to the creation of a security corridor and the export of Russian and Ukrainian products," Cavusoglu noted.

Turkish media reported on Thursday that the issue of creating a "grain center" in Istanbul and the preparation of a road map by representatives of Russia, Ukraine and the UN to unblock the export of Ukrainian grain and its exports through the Black Sea and the Straits Zone was being worked out. The implementation of these plans will allegedly make it possible to export about 20 million tons of grain to world markets.