PUTIN-ERDOGAN TAG TEAM WORLD
New Europe
Ja n 18 2010
Following the meeting between Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
and Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan in Moscow on 13 January,
Moscow and Ankara have come closer to building a "key" strategic
partnership by agreeing to deepen cooperation.
Putin said that Russia has won Turkish support for all its major oil,
gas and nuclear projects. He told a news conference after talks with
Erdogan that Ankara had pledged to fully clear Russia’s South Stream
before November 2010, when building is due to begin. "We have an
agreement that before November 10, 2010 … the Turkish government
will make all the necessary judgments and issue a construction permit.
In the course of today’s talks Mr Erdogan confirmed these intentions,"
Putin said. "I very much hope this work will be finished as planned,"
he said, adding that the work on South Stream was going according
to plan with environmental, geological and seismic studies near
completion.
Putin also said the project, which apart from Russia’s gas
export monopoly Gazprom involves Italy’s ENI, may benefit from an
inter-governmental agreement between Russia, Turkey and Italy.
Putin also said the governments of Italy, Turkey and Russia should
consider signing a deal to support the proposed Samsun-Ceyhan pipeline,
an oil link between Turkey’s Black Sea coast and the Mediterranean. He
said cooperation between the two states should involve asset swaps
between major firms and added Russian firms were ready to take part
in privatization of Turkey’s state assets.
Both Putin and Erdogan pledged to increase the use of national
currencies in bilateral trade, currently at $15.3 billion, which the
leaders want to boost to $100 billion within the next five years.
Turkish Energy Minister Taner Yildiz and Russian Deputy Prime Minister
Igor Sechin also signed a memorandum on building nuclear power plants
in Turkey in a sign Russian firms would be given a second chance to
build Ankara’s first plant.
The meeting between Putin and Erdogan was the first one in a range
of meetings that can both directly and indirectly affect advances
in the Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. However, Putin told Erdogan that
Turkey should not link the problem of Nagorno-Karabakh, a region
of Azerbaijan populated by ethnic Armenians who are now in control
of the area, to its bilateral relations with Armenia. "Both the
Nagorno-Karabakh problem and the Turkish-Armenian problem are very
complicated by nature. I do not think it is a right thing to tie them
into one package," Putin said. "It is unwise from both tactical and
strategic point of view to package these problems," he added.
Resolution of the conflict should facilitate the transfer of
hydrocarbons in the region.
"Our relations are developing and becoming more diversified in the
political, military, economic and cultural spheres. What is exciting
for me is that both sides have a positive will," to further boost ties,
Erdogan said.
Erdogan, who had talks with Putin and Russian President Dmitry
Medvedev during his one-day visit to Moscow, announced that the two
countries will start work on abolishing visa requirements for their
nationals. "The prime minister (Putin) has just given us the good
news that efforts to mutually abolish the visa requirements will
go forward as planned," Erdogan said, adding that the Turkish side
hoped that a final deal would be concluded during an upcoming visit
by Medvedev in May or June.
Erdogan said later in Istanbul that the two countries would also hold
a strategic cooperation council meeting during Medvedev’s visit,
a cooperation platform similar to the ones Turkey launched with
neighboring Syria and Iraq last year.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress
