Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has confirmed that he will work with Russia to make Turkey a node for the redistribution of Russian gas to third countries, a day after his counterpart Vladimir Putin raised this possibility during a meeting between the two leaders in Kazakhstan.

“We have ordered the Ministry of Energy and Natural Resources and the institution in charge on the Russian side to work together,” Erdogan has assured in statements to journalists on the plane that was precisely transferring him from Astana, confirming a disposition that the Kremlin had previously taken for granted.

The objective is to create an “international distribution center” and, for Erdogan, the most favorable territory would be the region of Eastern Thrace, on the shores of the Black Sea, according to the Anatolia agency. This province is already served by the Turkstream, which according to Putin is currently the most reliable pipeline for exports.

Putin denounced on Thursday an attempt of sabotage on this pipeline which, according to his main spokesman, resulted in several arrests, after describing as “an act of international terrorism” the explosions recorded on the Nord Stream pipelines, which run under the Baltic Sea and are key for supplies to the center of Europe.

Source: News360.es