ISTANBUL, August 7. /TASS/. The issues of bilateral cooperation in the area of energy and the creation on the Turkish territory of a gas hub will be on the agenda of possible talks between Turkish and Russian presidents, Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin, a source in local diplomatic circles told TASS when commenting on the government-backed newspaper Hurriyet’s report of a planned visit by the Russian leader to Turkey at the end of August.
"The agenda of the talks will be quite broad, considering the scale of trade and economic cooperation between the two countries. Energy and the plans to create on the territory a gas hub or a center for gas supplies to Europe will be prior. Turkey wants to turn it into a platform where energy prices will be formed," the source said.
Russian President Vladimir Putin said last month that the topic of creating a gas hub in Turkey remained on the agenda, noting that the project envisioned the creation of an electronic trading platform for gas supplies to Europe considering Turkey’s growing role as a country transiting gas to the continent.
In October 2022, Putin proposed creating the largest gas hub in Europe in Turkey and redirecting the volume of gas, the transit of which is no longer possible through the Nord Stream, to this hub. The Turkish side noted that almost everything is ready in terms of infrastructure for the implementation of the hub project, but it is necessary to amend the legislation.