Turkey has no problem holding back approval of Sweden’s and Finland’s applications to join NATO while pursuing its own talks with Russia on opening Ukrainian ports in the Black Sea to allow the shipment of grain overseas, a panel of security experts said Wednesday.

Speaking at an Atlantic Council event, Pavel Popescu, chairman of a key security committee in the Romanian parliament, said, “I see a trap of going into single negotiations” with the Kremlin. Russian President Vladimir Putin did not want Europe and NATO presenting a united front against Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine and bullying of smaller neighbors like Moldova and Georgia, he said.

“Diplomacy died in the Kremlin,” he said. “We didn’t understand that for years.”

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So far, the talks over de-mining the waters near Odesa and allowing escorts for merchant vessels taking an estimated more than 20 million tons of grain for export now stored in Ukraine through the Russian blockade have led nowhere.

In the talks in Ankara, Turkey called for an easing of sanctions against Russia. The latest sanctions were imposed in the wake of its Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine. Moscow pledged at the negotiations not to attack the vessels carrying grain out, but insisted on inspecting vessels coming in to ensure Western weapons weren’t secretly shipping to Ukraine.

Read more: USNI