Erdogan confirms Turkey’s readiness to be a hub for Russian gas exports

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Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that he will work together with Russia to make Turkey a node for the redistribution of Russian gas to third countries, a day after his counterpart, Vladimir Putin, raised this possibility coinciding with a meeting between the two leaders in Kazakhstan.

“We have ordered the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the institution in charge on the Russian side to work together,” Erdogan has assured in statements to journalists in the plane that was precisely transferring him from Astana, confirming a disposition that had previously been taken for granted by the Kremlin.

The objective is to create an “international distribution center” and, for Erdogan, the most favorable territory would be the region of Eastern Thrace, on the shores of the Black Sea, according to the Anatolia agency. This province is already served by the Turkstream, which according to Putin is currently the most reliable gas pipeline for exports.

Putin denounced on Thursday an attempt of sabotage on this pipeline which, according to his main spokesman, resulted in several arrests, after qualifying as an “act of international terrorism” the explosions recorded on the Nord Stream pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea and are key for the supply to the center of Europe.