Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Friday during a meeting with the Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan that Europe should be grateful to Turkey for the continuous transit of gas from Russiareported “Guardian”, “Reuters” and “France 24”.
“I want to point out that “Turk Stream”, the construction of which we finished some time ago, is today one of the most important arteries to supply Europe with Russian gas,” Putin said, adding that unlike other routes, this one “works properly, works rhythmically, without any breakdowns.”
Putin thanked Turkey for continuing to be a good trading partnernoting that trade turnover between Moscow and Ankara doubled in the period from January to May 2022.
Erdogan stressed on Friday that further negotiations with Putin on the issue of Syria will “bring relief to the region“.
Erdogan stressed the importance of negotiations in his speech before the bilateral meeting with Putin, emphasizing that Turkey values its partnership with Russia in the fight against terrorism.
The Turkish president ruled out any delay regarding the joint Akuyu nuclear power plant projectnoting that the plant is planned to provide the country with 10% of its energy needs.
Putin and Erdogan meet again on August 5
The topics of the conversation have not been announced
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Putin welcomes the Turkish president to Sochia resort town on the Black Sea, as his thanked for helping secure an international deal that resumed grain exports from Ukraine, cut off by the Kremlin’s war machine – as well as Russian food and fertilizer – to world markets.
The deal ended a standoff that threatened a global food crisis as Ukraine and Russia are among the largest exporters of grain in the world. Three other ships, carrying almost 60,000 tonnes of grain between them, left Ukrainian Black Sea ports on Friday and are on their way to Britain, Ireland and Turkey respectively.
“It is a very pressing problem for many countries, above all for developing ones, which are on the verge of major food supply problems and fertilizers. Decisions made with your direct participation are very important for all these countries,” Putin told Erdogan at the start of their closed-door meetings.
But reports warn that the meeting may have an ulterior motive. A Ukrainian government report described by the Washington Post said Putin would seek Russian stakes in Turkish oil refineries, terminals and tanks to help disguised the origin of Russian oil exports ahead of the planned EU oil embargo. Russia may seek accounts of major Russian banks to circumvent financial sanctions.
The Russian government has not confirmed the report and there is no indication that Turkey will accept the proposals, which would put the NATO member at significant risk of secondary sanctions.
At least publicly, economic cooperation was on the agenda of the negotiationsbut tensions between the two countries and their leaders remain significant. Turkey is a member of NATO, has sold advanced weapons such as Bayraktar drones to Ukraine and is at odds with Russia over the future of Syria, where the Kremlin has backed Bashar al-Assad as Turkey seeks to gain influence in the north of the country.
There are also other signs that the two leaders plan to discuss more than their economic agenda. Before the start of the meeting, Russian journalists noted that it was Ramzan Kadyrov was presentthe Chechen leader who sent forces under his command to both Syria and Ukraine.
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Erdogan flies to Sochi for meeting with Putin
Talks between the presidents of Russia and Turkey
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Aides to the leaders described the talks in Sochi as a follow-up to their discussions in Iran on July 19 – some of which included Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s supreme leader – covering issues such as drones, grain supplies, energy and Syria, the New York Times reported.
Erdogan has emerged as an important mediator between Ukraine and Russia, which is looking for ways out of the economic and political isolation imposed by the West because of its invasion of Ukraine. Turkey, a NATO member and long-disenchanted EU candidate, has been instrumental in brokering an agreement between the two warring countries to urgently restart Ukrainian grain supplies via the Black Sea.
As for Syria, Putin said that the two will discuss “security issues in the region, above all the Syrian crisis“, choosing to emphasize efforts to normalize the situation there instead of focusing on their sharp differences. Turkey has long threatened to invade Kurdish groups along the border, but wants to do so without risking armed conflict with Russia the kind that upset relations in 2015 after the Turks shot down a Russian fighter jet.
Erdogan, touching on many of the same topics, said steps taken on issues such as energy, grain, the Black Sea and transport were examples of the important role Turkey and Russia are playing in the region.
Erdogan seeks to preserve his ability to talk to both NATO foe Russia and Western members of the alliance. Turkey has stuck to its refusal to join Western sanctions against Russia, irritating its NATO allies, but Erdogan has also, in a crucial move, softened his initial objections to Sweden and Finland joining the alliance as a bulwark against Russian aggression.
Russia is an important energy supplier to Turkey, providing a quarter of the country’s crude oil imports and almost half of natural gas purchases last year. Rosatom, Russia’s state-run nuclear corporation, is building a nuclear power plant in the Mediterranean that is expected to supply 10 percent of Turkey’s energy needs after its planned completion in 2026.
For its part, Turkey is becoming an important transshipment point for goods destined for Russiaafter many Western freight companies no longer handle shipments to Russia for fear of defying sanctions, Turkey’s Dunya newspaper reported Thursday. The country also remains a popular destination for Russian tourists.
However, the two leaders remain at large differences, backing opposing sides in the Syrian civil war and taking opposing sides in the bitter border dispute between Azerbaijan and Armenia.
Their relationship with weapons is also complicated. In recent years, Turkey has resisted its NATO partners buying Russian anti-aircraft missiles. And now Russia – hit by war-related Western sanctions for technologies such as missile guidance systems and drones – is urgently looking for materials.
“Military-technical cooperation between the two countries is constantly on the agenda and the very fact that our interaction is developing in this sensitive sphere shows that, in general, the entire spectrum of our relations is at a very high level,” Dmitry Peskov, the Russian president’s press secretary, said earlier, according to Interfax.
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