Putin, Erdogan to Meet for 1st Time after Russian Warplane Incident

World | August 9, 2016, Tuesday // 08:07|  views

A file photo of Russian President Vladimir Putin (R), Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan (2-R), and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas (3-R) attend the ceremonial opening of the Moscow Sobornaya Mosque in Moscow, Russia, September 23, 2015. EPA/BGNES

The Presidents of Russia and Turkey are due to meet in St Petersburg for the first time after the downing of a Russian fighter-bomber by the Turkish Air Force in November.

The incident severed bilateral relations, halted cooperation in energy and trade and decreased the flow of Russian tourists to Turkey.

But Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdo?an in June apologized to Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, marking the beginning of a thaw.

On Monday he told Russian TASS news agency Ankara was ready to immediately return to the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, whose implementation came to a halt after the incident but had been marked by a dispute over gas pricing discounts even before the incident.

The St Petersburg meeting is expected to give "the final momentum" to go on with both Turkish Stream and Akkuyu nuclear power plant, which is to be built by Russia.

Turkish Stream was announced as a substitute to South Stream, a pipeline which was to supply Central Europe with gas via Bulgaria and Serbia but whose construction was declared over in December 2014. Bulgaria has recently shown willingness to revive the pipeline project.

A possible renewal of Turkish Stream, however, has been met with concern by officials in Ukraine, which sees in the project a possibility for Russia to partially or fully bypass its gas transportation network into Europe.

The Syrian crisis and the fight against terrorism will also be high on the bilateral agenda.


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Tags: Recep Tayyip Erdogan, Vladimir Putin, Turkish Stream, South stream, Russia, turkey, Akkuyu, SU-24

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