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Putin arrives in Turkey for ceremony to complete construction of pipeline offshore section

The Turkish leader will also take part in the ceremony

ISTANBUL, November 19. /TASS/. Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Istanbul, where he will take part in the ceremony of completing the construction of the offshore section of the Turkish Stream gas pipeline via a video conference.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will also take part in the ceremony, after which the two leaders are expected to hold bilateral talks. According to the Kremlin press service, the presidents "will discuss issues of further development of Russian-Turkish relations and key regional and international issues".

After completing his program in Istanbul, Putin will arrive in Sochi to launch a chain of sessions on issues of military construction, the development of armed forces and the defense-industrial sector.

Turkey is ranked seventh among Russia’s foreign trade partners. In 2017, Russian-Turkish trade made up 22.1 billion dollars, growing more than 40% year-on-year. In January-September, it grew by another 26%

According to Turkish media, Putin and Erdogan may discuss the implementation of the agreement on supplies of Russian S-400 missile systems, as well as the situation in the Syrian province of Idlib, where a 10-to 15-kilometer-deep de-militarized zone must be set up in line with the agreements between the Russian and Turkish leaders achieved in Sochi on September 17.

The Turkish Stream project envisages the construction of a gas pipeline across the Black Sea to Turkey’s European part and further on to the border with Greece. The first thread is meant for gas supplies to the Turkish market. The second one will be used to supply gas to Southern and Southeastern Europe. Each thread will have a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas a year. It is planned to begin gas supplies via this pipeline in late 2019.

The seabed section is 910 kilometers long and the land section will run 180 km into Turkey. Each of two lines will have a capacity of 15.75 bln cubic meters of gas a year.