"Turkish
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan supports the Kremlin's idea to create a new
international gas center in Turkey and wants his government to immediately
start preparing plans for the implementation of the idea, Turkish media
reported on Friday.
Russian President
Vladimir Putin has proposed pipeline natural gas to southern Europe via Turkey
after Nord Stream has virtually stopped flowing.
The idea
immediately raised concerns among European powers such as France, with
President Emmanuel Macron's office calling the proposal "absurd".
Russia already
supplies Turkey with gas through the TurkStream pipeline under the Black Sea.
After returning
from talks with Putin in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Erdogan said that the new gas
distribution center will most likely be established in Thrace, a northwestern
region near Bulgaria.
"We have a
national distribution center, but of course now it will be an international
distribution center," Erdogan told reporters after his fourth meeting with
the Russian leader in the past three months.
"We will not
wait on this issue," the president added.
The fading
prospect of ceasefire talks
Gas prices have
risen sharply since the start of a series of sanctions against Russia, and
Europe has struggled to find alternative energy sources as Moscow began cutting
supplies in response to Western sanctions.
The situation was
further aggravated in September when explosions damaged the Nord Stream gas
pipeline from Russia to Germany.
Putin said this
week that Russia also prevented a planned attack on the TurkStream gas
pipeline, although he did not provide any evidence or details.
"We are
rapidly building a safety net" for the new gas distribution center
project, Erdogan said.
The European Union
is also taking urgent measures to end its decades-long dependence on Russian
energy supplies.
However, Turkish
Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu insisted that Europe needs "additional
pipelines, additional facilities" to alleviate the energy crisis.
"This is a
question of supply and demand," said M. Cavusoglu.
NATO member Turkey
has refused to join international sanctions against Russia and is seeking to
use its neutral status to bring the warring countries together for ceasefire
talks.
Nevertheless,
Cavusoglu acknowledged on Friday that the possibility of a truce was
diminishing as time went on.
"The
possibility of a truce has decreased, but we will continue our efforts,"
the minister noted."
When it comes to a
lot of money, sanctions don't work. Sanctions only make life worse for poor
little countries like Cuba.
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