Erdoğan, Putin agree to build 'natural gas hub' for Europe in northwest Türkiye

Photo: AA

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan met President Vladimir Putin of Russia yesterday (October 13) on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia (CICA) in Astana, Kazakhstan.

A proposal by Putin to turn Türkiye into a "gas hub for Europe" became a talking point after what was the two leader's fourth meeting in three months.

Türkiye offered the most reliable route to deliver gas to the European Union, and the proposed platform would allow prices, now sky-high, to be set without political overtones, Putin said in a statement after the meeting.

Putin's proposal comes after deliveries to Germany through the Baltic Sea's Nord Stream pipeline halted.

Erdoğan also said Ankara and Moscow will work jointly on building a natural gas hub in the Thrace region in northwestern Türkiye.

"For such a distribution center, of course, Thrace is seen as the most important place for this business," the president told reporters yesterday on the presidential plane returning from the trip.

"Together with Putin, we instructed our Energy and Natural Resources Ministry and the relevant institution on the Russian side to work together. They will do this work there," he said.

"Wherever the most appropriate place is, we will hopefully have established this distribution center there. We have a national distribution center, but of course, now this will be an international distribution center," Erdogan said.

Grain exports

The two leaders are also willing to expand a grain export deal to include Russia's foodstuffs and fertilizers, said Erdoğan.

"We are determined to strengthen and continue the grain exports under the İstanbul agreement and the transfer of Russian grain and fertilizer to less developed countries via Türkiye," Erdoğan said, referring to the agreement brokered by Türkiye and the United Nations to secure grain exports from Ukraine.

"We may work on determining the name of countries. It is important that we focus on the poor countries rather than developed countries," Erdogan said, adding, "I believe that the steps that Türkiye and Russia will take in this process will disturb certain countries, but they will make underdeveloped countries happy," he added.

On July 22, Türkiye, the UN, Russia and Ukraine signed the agreement to resume exports from Ukraine, which had stopped since late February when Russia began its invasion of Ukraine. (PE/VK)