Turkish, Russian presidents attend ceremony marking completion of gas pipeline project TurkStream’s offshore section in Istanbul.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin attended Monday a ceremony marking the completion of the construction of the offshore section of the TurkStream project, a gas pipeline that will carry Russian gas to Turkey and Europe.
Speaking at the ceremony, Erdogan said that TurkStream natural gas project had many advantages not only for Turkey, but also for its region, neighboring countries.
Erdogan called Russia a “reliable’ partner for Turkey” and an “important” natural gas provider that Turkey can cooperate with in the long run.
TurkStream natural gas pipeline project will be ready to operate in 2019 after tests are carried out, said President Erdogan.
Erdogan said Turkey’s goal was to reach a bilateral trade volume of $100B with Russia, adding that Turkey purchased 387 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia since 1987.
President Erdogan said Turkey’s solidarity with Russian president and people will pave way for bigger projects for both countries in the future.
On his part, Russian President Putin said his country wanted to reach $100 billion bilateral trade volume with Turkey.
Putin said the TurkStream will make Turkey an “important” center of natural gas and enhance the country in the region.
He said materializing such a project would be impossible without the mutual trust between the two countries.
