Kremlin says TurkStream has serious potential for expansion

Anadolu Agency - Duvar English

The TurkStream gas pipeline is one of the world's biggest gas transport systems and has serious potential for expansion, the Kremlin said on Oct. 25.

"Turkey is currently one of the largest recipients of Russian gas, and we are now connected with Turkey by one of the largest gas pipeline systems, TurkStream, which has serious potential for expansion if necessary," spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters in Moscow.

Peskov said matters of energy cooperation were controlled at the highest level between the two countries and that there were also constant contacts at the working level.

Noting that Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdoğan have both expressed interest in building a gas hub in Türkiye, Peskov said the details of the project were being worked out.

Russian President Pusin previously expressed that they could redirect supplies intended for the damaged Nord Stream pipelines to the Black Sea to create a European gas hub in Turkey.

The 930-kilometer-long pipeline TurkStream, which is laid in the Black Sea, is a link between the gas transmission systems of Russia and Turkey. The gas pipeline has two strings. The first string delivers gas to Turkey, while the second string is intended for gas transit to southern and southeastern Europe through Turkish territory.

On Russia-Turkey relations, Peskov said Ankara had its own, independent position on world affairs, different from that of the West, and remains open to mediating between Moscow and Kyiv as it follows its national interests in trade and economic relations with Russia.

"Turkey has not joined the sanctions of the collective West, and in this regard (Ankara's position) compares favorably both for the Turkish people themselves and from the point of view of our bilateral relations," he said.

NATO member Turkey has close relations with both Ukraine and Russia and has sought to balance ties during the conflict in Ukraine, rejecting Western sanctions on Moscow while criticising Russia for what the Kremlin calls a "special military operation" in Ukraine and supplying Kyiv with armed drones.

Along with the United Nations, Turkey brokered the July deal to unlock Ukrainian grain exports from its Black Sea ports, in what remains the only significant diplomatic breakthrough in the conflict.

Ankara's relations with Russia are complex, with the two countries cooperating closely on energy supplies while being at odds over Syria, Libya and Azerbaijan.