Erdogan, Putin celebrate key step in Russia-Turkey gas pipeline
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Istanbul: Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on Monday marked the completion of the offshore phase of a gas pipeline underneath the Black Sea, the latest sign of burgeoning cooperation between Ankara and Moscow.
Erdogan hailed the TurkStream pipeline, which aims to pump some 31.1 billion cubic metres of gas from Russia to Turkey annually, as a "new step" in Turkish-Russian energy cooperation, which he said showed the "high level" of relations between the two countries.
Ties between Russia and Turkey plunged to their lowest level in years in November 2015 when Turkish forces shot down a Russian warplane over Syria.
But after a reconciliation deal in 2016, relations have recovered with remarkable speed with Putin and Erdogan cooperating closely over Syria, Turkey buying Russian-made air defence systems and Russia building Turkey's first nuclear power plant.
Monday's ceremony marked the completion of the building of two undersea lines stretching 930 kilometres (578 miles) across the Black Sea from Anapa in Russia to Kiyikoy in Turkey at a depth of some 2 kilometres.
The pipeline was laid by the special pipe-laying vessel Pioneering Spirit, which is the area of some six football pitches. Putin and Erdogan watched via video link in Istanbul as the last section was welded and laid into the sea by the vessel.
Putin said he believed TurkStream and the Akkuyu nuclear power station would become "clear symbols of the growing development of Russia and Turkey's multi-faceted partnership."
"This (TurkStream) will without doubt turn Turkey into a serious European hub and this will without doubt have an effect on the geopolitical position of the Turkish Republic," he added.
APP/AFP
