PUTIN, ERDOGAN REVIEW ENERGY COOPERATION PLANS (ROUNDUP)
Monsters and Critics.com
Jan 13 2010
Moscow – Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin received his Turkish
counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan for talks Wednesday, at which they
agreed on deepening the two countries’ energy cooperation.
According to the Interfax news agency, Putin said afterwards that
the two countries aim to bring Italy on as a partner in the planned
trans-Anatolia oil pipeline project.
The pipeline would link Turkey’s Samsun port on the Black Sea with
its Mediterranean coastal city Ceyhan, some 400 kilometres directly
to the south.
In addition, the two sides agreed to step up their efforts in the
South-Stream gas pipeline project, Putin said.
This project is regarded as posing competition with the Nabucco gas
pipeline project with which the European Union aims to become less
dependent on Russian gas deliveries.
Additionally, Putin and Erdogan signed an agreement to construct
Turkey’s first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, about 350 kilometres
east of the city of Antalya. According to Russian media reports,
the power plant should cost around 15.5 billion euros (22.5 billion
dollars) and be completed in 2020.
Putin also said that Russian firms would soon take a more active
role in the privatization of Turkish energy firms, for example in
enterprises to provide gas to Istanbul.
Erdogan said he was enthusiastic about Russian interest in the
trans-Anatolia pipeline, noting that, until now, Russia had focused
more on a pipeline extending from the Black Sea to Greece via Bulgaria.
Turning to other matters, Putin said he encouraged an ongoing
reconciliation process between Turkey and Armenia, but said that the
question of Armenian occupation of the Nagorno-Karabakh region of
Azerbaijan is a question that cannot get wrapped up in the larger
reconciliation process.
Armenia took possession of the disputed territory in 1994.
‘Russia is interested in a speedy reconciliation,’ said Putin. ‘But
every problem needs to be considered individually.’