Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced on Wednesday that he had accepted the proposal of his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, to create an international natural gas hub in Türkiye.
Addressing the Turkish parliament, Erdogan cited Putin as saying that Europe could obtain Russian gas from a major hub in Türkiye.
Last week, the two leaders discussed the matter at a face-to-face meeting in the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana. The idea was suggested by the Russian president, who offered to build a major gas hub in Türkiye to handle supplies that had previously been directed to Europe through the Nord Stream 1 pipeline in the Baltic Sea. The pipeline, along with the yet-unused Nord Stream 2 pipeline, was severely damaged in late September in a series of explosions that are widely considered to be the result of sabotage.
Praising Türkiye as one of “the most reliable” partners for the transit of Russian fuel to Europe, Putin noted that an international gas hub would serve not only as a distribution platform, but could also be used for determining gas prices and avoiding the “politicization” of the issue.
The Kremlin had previously urged Ankara to consider further developing its gas infrastructure after several people were detained for allegedly plotting to sabotage the TurkStream pipeline, which delivers Russian natural gas to Türkiye. According to Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, the pipeline is now the only “fully functional, fully loaded and working as clockwork route” for Russian gas to reach Europe.
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