The future of the Turkish Stream project was expected to be high on the agenda as the Russian and Turkish Presidents Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan meet today after the opening ceremony of the inaugural European Games in Baku. Putin is being accompanied on his trip by energy minister Alexander Novak, foreign minister Sergei Lavrov, nuclear energy agency chief Sergei Kiriyenko and the chief of Gazprom state energy giant Alexei Miller.
The meeting is taking place the day after the European Commission’s Energy Union chief Maros Sefcovic called for additional consultations to clarify the commercial feasibility of the project. “We need more discussions on the Turkish Stream as all the information [we have] about it we have gathered from press conferences,” he said. “We need to know how it will affect European energy security and whether European legislation will be observed.” Sefcovic said, adding that project would have an impact on Ukraine that had been a key transit route for Russian gas supplies to Europe, “even in the Cold War.”
“We therefore need to discuss the project in a constructive atmosphere to understand the commercial feasibility of the project and to see how it fits into the strategy of the Energy Union.”