Turkey has no intention of giving up Russian gas – Energy Minister
Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said that the country will continue to buy gas from Russia.
"We cannot tell our citizens: 'Gas is over.' We need access to these resources without compromising the interests of energy security... We need to buy gas that we can get from Russia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan. We also continue to produce gas in the Black Sea," Bayraktar said on Thursday in an interview with CNN Turk.
The minister also noted the existence of gas supply agreements with Russia in the context of the approaching winter season.
On October 10, 2016, Russia and Turkey signed an agreement on the supply of gas via the TurkStream pipeline along the bottom of the Black Sea from Anapa district of Krasnodar Territory. The supply of fuel to the European part of Turkey began in January 2020.
US President Donald Trump, at a meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan on September 25, said that he would like to see Turkey stop purchasing Russian energy resources while the war in Ukraine continues.