RUSSIA, TURKEY PREPARING TO INTRODUCE VISA-FREE TRAVEL

AZG DAILY
15-01-2010

International

Russia and Turkey have started working towards visa-free travel between
the two countries, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Erdogan told a press
conference after meeting with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.

The decision could be made in spring-summer this year, by the time
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev’s visit to Turkey, he said.

Hopefully, switching to visa-free travel regime "will not take a lot
of time," Putin said, according to Interfax.

The two countries agreed on deepening of energy cooperation. They
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 sout, EarthTimes reported.

According to the source, Putin said the two sides agreed to step up
their efforts in the South-Stream gas pipeline project.

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 the
question of Nagorno-Karabakh region cannot be wrapped up in the
larger reconciliation process. "Russia is interested in a speedy
reconciliation," said Putin, "but every problem needs to be considered
individually."