President Vladimir Putin has proposed to his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, that Russia could export further gas through Turkey and turn it into a new force mecca as he tries to save Russia’s energy influence over Europe.
At a meeting in Kazakhstan on Thursday, Putin said Turkey offered the most dependable route to deliver gas to the European Union and the proposed mecca would allow prices to be set independent of politics.
Russia is looking to deflect inventories down from the two Nord Stream gas channels in the Baltic. They were damaged last month in explosions that are still under disquisition. Russia criticized the West without furnishing substantiation and rejected what it called “stupid” assertions that it had sabotaged the channels itself.
Putin told Erdogan the mecca would be “a platform not only for inventories but also for determining the price because this is a veritably important issue”.
“Moment, these prices are sky-high,” he said. “We could fluently regulate at a normal request position without any political saturations.”
Erdogan didn’t respond in the televised portion of their meeting, but Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov was quoted by the Russian news agency RIA as saying both men ordered a rapid-fire and detailed examination of the idea.
Peskov said the TurkStream gas channel can not be a relief for the Nord Stream channels because they’ve “different capacities”, RIA cited him as saying.
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‘A doable design’
Russia supplied about 40 percent of Europe’s gas before its February 24 irruption of Ukraine, but it has cut flows sprucely since also, indeed before the channel explosions. It criticized specialized problems for the interruptions in deliveries, which it said were the result of Western warrants.
European governments rejected that explanation, criminating Moscow of using energy as a geopolitical armament.
Al Jazeera’s Sinem Koseoglu, reporting from Istanbul, said Turkey’s energy minister told journalists at the same energy conference in Kazakhstan with Putin that “ this is a doable design, and technically,energy-wise, this is possible and it shall be studied. ”
It remains to be seen whether European countries would accept this offer, Koseoglu said.
“When it comes to energy channels, this is further than a result; this is like a geostrategic game, a strategic problem,” Koseoglu said. What will define the situation will be the European Union’s request or demand or appetite regarding Russian gas.
“Through this offer, Erdogan gains another chance to gain further credibility among his European counterparts.”
The French administration on Thursday snubbed Putin’s offer. “There’s no sense in creating new structure that allows further Russian gas to be imported,” a statement said.
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Turkish agreement
Relations with NATO member Turkey are vital to Russia at a time when the West has hit it with swells of profitable warrants, which Ankara has abstain from joining. Turkey, still, has rejected Russia’s move to addition four Ukrainian regions as a “grave violation” of transnational law.
Erdogan has sought to intervene between Moscow and Kyiv and achieved a rare advance in July when, together with the United Nations, he brokered an agreement allowing for the resumption of marketable Ukrainian grain exports from Black Sea anchorages that Russia had blockaded.
But Russia has complained that its own grain and fertiliser exports, while not directly targeted by Western warrants, continue to be hampered by problems similar as access to foreign anchorages and carrying insurance.
Erdogan told Putin “We’re determined to strengthen and continue the grain exports and the transfer of Russian grain and fertiliser to less developed countries via Turkey.”
Russian officers said before the meeting that they were open to hearing proffers from Turkey about hosting peace addresses involving Russia and the West.
Still, Peskov was quoted by the RIA news agency as saying, “The content of a Russian- Ukrainian agreement wasn’t bandied” by the leaders.
Source: Aljazeera
