Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan during a telephone conversation with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin said that Ankara plans to complete the roadmap for the gas hub as soon as possible. The administration of the Turkish leader announced this on Thursday following the talks.
"During the talks, President Erdogan said that the relevant infrastructure has been strengthened in Turkey as part of the creation of a natural gas hub and work in this direction is continuing. He also said that in the near future - it is planned to complete the work on the road map of the project and take concrete steps for its implementation," the statement reads.
The presidents of Turkey and Russia, according to the text, discussed relations between the two countries, including in the field of energy, as well as the Ukrainian crisis, the situation in Syria and regional issues.
The Turkish leader spoke in favor of an early cease-fire in Ukraine and resolving the crisis by peaceful means. "President Erdogan, with regard to the war between Russia and Ukraine, recalled the positive results that the negotiations on the creation of a grain corridor, the exchange of prisoners, the security of the Zaporozhye nuclear power plant have yielded. He said he supported calls for peace and negotiations, a unilateral cease-fire and a fair settlement," the report said.
Situation in Syria
Erdogan said Syria must take political steps to allow normalization of relations between Ankara and Damascus.
"President Erdogan said it is time to take concrete steps to clear the terrorist organization (Kurdistan Workers' Party and its Syrian offshoots - TASS) of the areas bordering Turkey, especially Tell Rifaat and Manbij. He also noted that in order to reach a concrete solution on the Syrian issue, the regime [of President Bashar al-Assad] needs to take a constructive stance and make some political steps in this process," the report reads.
On December 15, Erdogan offered Putin to hold a trilateral meeting with the Syrian president. The Turkish leader said the summit should be preceded by talks at the level of representatives of special services, defense and foreign ministers. The defense ministers of the three countries had talks in Moscow on December 28. A meeting of foreign ministers may be held in the second half of January.
GSV "Russia - Islamic world"
Photo: official website of the President of the Russian Federation
Based on materials from TASS