Russia deal puts Turkey on path to become nuclear energy nation
Turkey moved closer to becoming a nuclear energy nation after inking a
deal with visiting Russian President Dmitry Medvedev to build a
nuclear power plant on the Mediterranean coast.

Russia’s President Dmitry Medvedev (l.) and his Turkish counterpart
Abdullah Gul applaud as they watch the signing of agreements at the
Cankaya Palace in Ankara, Turkey, Wednesday. Medvedev is in Turkish
capital for a two-day state visit.

/0512/Russia-deal-puts-Turkey-on-path-to-become-nu clear-energy-nation
By Scott Peterson, Staff Writer / May 12, 2010

Istanbul, Turkey
Turkey has taken a big step toward being a nuclear energy nation by
signing a deal with Russia on Wednesday to build its first nuclear
power plant on the Mediterranean coast.

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to engage more deeply in Mideast ` and with neighbors All Turkey news
coverage The project ` along with a pipeline plan to bring Russian oil
overland from the Black Sea to a refinery on Turkey’s southern coast
for export to Europe, and a host of other measures ` was signed during
a visit here from Russian President Dmitry Medvedev.

`By taking these steps, Turkey is taking its position as an energy hub
to a much different level,’ said Turkey’s Prime Minister Recep Tayyip
ErdoÄ?an. `The solidarity with Russia on this issue is of utmost
importance.’

Mr. Medvedev was also effusive: `This agreement opens a new page in
our cooperation¦. Our talks today showed that Turkey and Russia are
strategic partners not only in words but in deeds,’ he said.

Turkey expands influence
The energy deals are part of NATO-ally Turkey’s broader strategy to
expand its influence in the region and become an energy corridor
between East and West, while also serving as an increasingly important
diplomatic player seeking to help resolve Iran’s nuclear standoff with
the West and the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

For Russia, the Turkey visit is part of a regional swing that saw the
Russian leader in Syria earlier this week in a bid to raise Moscow’s
profile in the Middle East. In Damascus, Medvedev sought to rejuvenate
some of Syria’s historic ties with the former Soviet Union ` even
while the United States has signaled a partial thaw with Syria by
appointing the first US ambassador since 2005, though the US Senate
has held up his nomination and on May 3 President Obama extended
economic sanctions for one year.

Medvedev followed up in Turkey, where the 20 or so agreements made on
Wednesday will generate some $25 billion in investment, a figure that
he said `really looks rather impressive.’

Turkey’s President Abdullah Gul said the two nations aimed to triple
annual bilateral trade to $100 billion in the next half decade.

Sergei Kiriyenko, the chief of the Russian nuclear corporation
Rosatom, said nuclear deal alone was `a very big contract’ that could
be worth $18 billion to $20 billion, according to Agence
France-Presse. Russia would hold a controlling stake in the plant and
operate it.

`Russia has never owned a nuclear power station outside its
territory,’ Mr. Kiriyenko said.

The nuclear power plant is to start in 2014 and take seven years to
build in the coastal town of Akkuyu. It is not unlike the one Russia
is building for Iran at Bushehr, which has taken more than a decade
and faced repeated delays ` some of them, Iran suspects, for political
reasons.

Pipeline plans
The pipeline proposal, reported to be worth $3 billion, would bring
Russian oil from Turkey’s Black Sea port of Samsun to a joint refinery
on the Mediterranean at Ceyhan, which already links oil flows from
Azerbaijan and Iraq. The deal would bypass the narrow Bosphorus at
Istanbul, which is congested with tanker traffic, and would provide
for both Turkey’s domestic and European markets.

Erdogan also spoke of Russia’s South Stream gas pipeline project,
which aims to provide Russian natural gas to Europe while bypassing
Ukraine, though it is a rival to the European Union Nabucco pipeline,
which Turkey also supports.

In the past year, Russia has become one of Turkey’s primary trading
partners, at a volume worth $40 billion in 2008 and dipping ` because
of the global recession ` to $22.9 billion in 2009. Russia already
provides some 60 percent of Turkey’s natural gas.

One of the first orders of business during the Russian leader’s visit
was an agreement to lift tourist visa restrictions between the two
nations. More than 2 million Russians flock to Turkish resorts and
beaches each year, often on package tours flying direct from Moscow
and other Russian cities to Turkey’s sunny southern coast.

`It’s a historical agreement that will before anything else ease the
life of millions of people,’ Medvedev said.