TURKEY AND RUSSIA VOW TO COOPERATE ON ENERGY
Hurriyet
May 18 2009
Turkey
ANKARA – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin says Turkey and Russia
have agreed to extend a contract on natural gas supplies. The current
agreement is scheduled to end in 2012. A proposed new pipeline,
Blue Stream 2 is expected to meet Turkey’s growing need for natural gas
The prime ministers of Turkey and Russia agreed over the weekend to
strengthen the countries’ energy cooperation and begin negotiations
over the Blue Stream 2 natural-gas pipeline project.
The announcement came Saturday at a televised joint press conference
held by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and his Russian
counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in the Black Sea resort of Sochi. The
two first held a one-on-one meeting, which will be followed by talks
between their delegations, attended by Turkish Energy Minister Taner
Yılmaz and Aleksei Miller, the CEO of Russian gas giant Gazprom.
The Blue Stream pipeline currently runs from Russia to Turkey under
the Black Sea; the proposed new pipeline, known as Blue Stream 2,
is expected to expand its output capacity by 10 billion cubic meters
annually. Plans call for it to enable gas deliveries to countries in
the Middle East, Israel and other nations.
Without elaborating, Putin said Turkey and Russia had agreed to extend
a contract on natural gas supplies. The current agreement to supply
Turkey with about 6 billion cubic meters of Russian gas annually is
scheduled to end in 2012; the proposed pipeline is expected to meet
Turkey’s growing need for natural gas.
During the Erdogan-Putin meeting, Russian delivery of electricity
to Turkey, as well as the latest developments in Turkish plans to
construct nuclear power plants, were among the topics discussed. Putin
said Russian companies were ready to help build four nuclear power
plants in Turkey.
Regional issues, including Nagorno-Karabakh discussed
The leaders also held talks concerning regional disputes, including
the Nagorno-Karabakh issue. Putin said the two parties involved,
Armenia and Azerbaijan, must be the ones to reach a compromise,
and that other countries could only act as mediators or guarantors
of any agreement that might be made. Erdogan was expected to update
the Russian leader about the rapprochement process between Turkey
and Armenia, reported daily Milliyet.
Before departing for Russia, Erdogan spoke to reporters at
Istanbul’s Ataturk Airport and said Turkey cannot remain silent on the
Nagorno-Karabakh issue. His remarks came in response to those made by
Armenian President Serzh Sargsyan, who said if Turkey wants to help
find a peaceful solution to the problem, it should not interfere in
the agreement process.
"As a country in the region, it is out of the question for
Turkey to remain silent on the Nagorno-Karabakh issue," Erdogan
said. "The closing of the border [with Armenia] is related to
Nagorno-Karabakh. Thus, we cannot open the border unless the problem
is resolved."
Meanwhile, Bernard Fassier, the French co-chairman of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe’s Minsk Group, will hold talks
today in Ankara, one of his stops after a regional tour to Armenia and
Azerbaijan. He is expected to meet with Foreign Ministry Undersecretary
Ertugrul Apakan, reported the Anatolia news agency.