Russian President Vladimir Putin said the natural gas hub he and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed to build on earlier this year would be a “electronic trading platform.”
“I want to be clear that this is not oil or a storage facility for oil; it is gas.” This is something that both we and our Turkish friends are aware of. “We are discussing the creation of an electronic trading platform,” Putin told journalists late Saturday during a press conference in St. Petersburg.
Putin emphasised that the natural gas hub project does not involve large-scale gas storage.
“It’s simply a convenient location for organising such an electronic trading platform because Turkey has become a transit country for Europe,” Putin explained.
Putin stated that Turkey’s position as a transit country is growing, and he emphasised that if gas connections are disrupted, all countries will endeavour to protect their energy security.
He also mentioned future meetings with Erdogan, saying they had agreed to talk on the phone later.
“We agreed, in my opinion, to talk on Wednesday.” “We’ll talk about it and make a decision,” he stated.
He said that, while they had agreed to meet in person, they had yet to decide on a time and location. “We’ll see if he comes to us or if I go to him,” Putin added.
Erdogan stated earlier this month that Putin may visit Turkey in August, following a meeting with his Ukrainian colleague Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Istanbul