Building natural gas hub in Turkiye would allow setting a market price for fuel and avoiding politicisation of energy prices, Russian President Putin tells Turkish President Erdogan in Astana meeting.
Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed to his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan building a natural gas hub in Turkiye.
Speaking on the sidelines of a regional gathering in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Putin said building a hub in Turkiye would allow, among other things, regulating prices, selling gas at market prices, “not sky-high,” and ruling out “politicisation” of the issue.
Meeting with Erdogan during the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia in Astana, he praised Turkiye as “the most reliable partner” for gas deliveries to Europe.
Putin also said the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Mersin,southern Turkiye is going according to the schedule, and it might be able to start operations next year, the 100th anniversary of the Turkish Republic.
Gas deliveries via TurkStream
Russia continues gas deliveries via the TurkStream gas pipeline despite attempts to damage it, Putin added.
On the Istanbul grain deal brokered this summer by Turkiye designed to avoid an international food crisis – he lamented that “as before, a small share of grain under the grain deal goes to the poorest countries.”
The countries receiving Ukrainian grain under the Istanbul deal should be grateful to Erdogan, Putin said.
Stopping bloodshed
Turkiye’s aim is to stop bloodshed in the ongoing Russia-Ukraine conflict as soon as possible despite hurdles, Erdogan said at the summit earlier.
“Our goal is to continue the momentum gained despite the difficulties in the field and to stop the bloodshed as soon as possible,” he added.
Erdogan said that Turkiye’s intensive efforts with the UN and the two parties to the conflict to curb the negative effects of the war have gained the appreciation of the entire world.
“We are determined to strengthen and continue the grain exports under the Istanbul agreement and the transfer of Russian grain and fertilizer to less developed countries via Turkiye,” he said.
“We may work on determining the name of countries. It is important that we focus on the poor countries rather than developed countries,” he added.
He said he hopes to meet Putin again on the sidelines of a summit in Uzbekistan’s Samarkand.