Türkiye already has capacity to become energy hub: Foreign minister

By Merve Aydogan

ANKARA (AA) – Türkiye has the capacity already to be an energy hub for natural gas headed to Europe, as proposed by Russia’s president earlier this week, said the Turkish foreign minister on Friday.

Türkiye is ready to become "an energy hub for determining gas prices," Mevlut Cavusoglu told a press conference in Istanbul alongside his Qatari counterpart Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani.

A project to make Türkiye an energy hub would require additional investments that need to be worked out, he added.

On the sidelines of a meeting in Kazakhstan this week, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin spoke about how the countries can work jointly on building a natural gas hub in Türkiye's Thrace region.

Cavusoglu also said Putin “says that gas deliveries from Russia to European countries that want to buy (gas) can be done via Türkiye. He wants Türkiye to be a hub along these lines."

Citing last month’s leaks on the Russian Nord Stream gas pipelines, which were blamed on sabotage, Cavusoglu said Putin no longer sees the pipeline as a "secure route."

Stressing that Türkiye wants the energy crisis in Europe to be dealt with, Cavusoglu said the weakening of Europe is against Türkiye’s interests.

On the Ukraine war in the wake of last week’s attack on Russia’s Kerch Bridge and subsequent Russian airstrikes in Ukraine, Cavusoglu said a meeting between the countries’ leaders in the near future does not seem possible.

Asked about the latest in normalization talks between Türkiye and Armenia, Cavusoglu said the two countries agreed to host future talks on their own soil, rather than in third countries, as was done previously.