Russia expects to sign a $60 billion energy contract with Turkey soon
Turkish President Abdullah Gul came to Russia on an official visit Friday. Ankara and Moscow are important economic partners for one another. Mutual trade between them stood at about $34 billion last year. As President Dmitry Medvedev noted, that indicator has increased 35 times in the past 10 years, but the two countries have more ambitious plans.
Energy has made a big contribution to the partnership. The Blue Stream gas pipeline, launched in February 2003, carries gas to Turkey under the Black Sea, and there are even more far-reaching plans in the energy sphere.
"Our future plans of course include encouragement of mutual investments, modernization of infrastructure, and major energy projects," the Russian leader stressed after the talks. "We already have good cooperation experience, however; new opportunities are opening up and we discussed some of them today. They include cooperation in power generation and nuclear power. We hope that such projects will be implemented."
The Russian President was referring to the construction of the Akkuya nuclear plant 200 km from Antalia. It will be comprised of four 1200 megawatt power units. "We are taking part in an international tender; practically all the bidders have dropped out as the tender went on," Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko said. "The documents we have submitted fully satisfy the Turkish side in technological terms." The Turkish side recently opened the envelope with the commercial offer, and the Minister said it turned out to be higher than the Turks had expected. "This is the standard situation," Mr Shmatko noted calmly. "During today's talks we made a substantial concession to the Turkish side and look forward to further dialogue."
The construction of the nuclear plant in Turkey will cost $18-20 billion, according to the Ministry of Energy, but that is only part of a larger contract. The nuclear plant, to be built by a consortium of Russian and Turkish companies, will be financed entirely by the consortium and will later become its property. Turkey intends to buy power from that plant. "The Turkish Government plans to offer guarantees to buy all the generated electricity at fixed prices for 15 years," Mr Shmatko said. "Today we discussed the price." The Energy Minister estimated the total cost of the 15-year contract at $60 billion.
The Russian-Turkish talks dealt not only with economics; the two leaders devoted some time to international issues, especially security, where the problems remain the same - terrorism and extremism, as Dmitry Medvedev stressed.
"Our countries are interested in strengthening the security of the Caucasus region to ensure a proper level of security in the Black Sea area," the Russian leader said. "We fully agree with a number of positions that may strengthen security. We welcome some of the initiatives put forward by our Turkish counterparts. I am referring in particular to the platform of stability and cooperation in the Caucasus."
Later, the conversation moved from the Kremlin to the White House, where the Turkish President met with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. "I am glad to note that the relations between our countries are developing actively and are maintained at the highest level," Mr Putin said. Considering that economic problems had been covered at the Kremlin meeting between the two presidents, the Prime Minister merely stressed that Russia has become Turkey's biggest trade partner. "Turkey is one of our foreign policy priorities," Vladimir Putin said.
For his part, Abdullah Gul noted that Prime Minister Putin could be regarded as the "author" of "multifarious and advanced" Russian-Turkish relations.
Moscow issue
Vladimir Kuzmin