Published 18:31 IST, October 19th 2022
Erdogan accepts Vladimir Putin's proposal to make Turkey a natural gas hub for Europe
President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said that he agrees with Russian President Vladimir Putin's idea of turning Turkey into a natural gas hub for Europe.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin's idea of turning Turkey into a natural gas hub for Europe. Speaking at the Justice and Development (AK) Party's group meeting in Ankara, he said, "Türkiye will be a hub for natural gas as well. In our last meeting, we agreed with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin on this issue," as per reports from TRT World.
"We will create a hub here with gas coming from Russia. And as Putin in his own words announced to the world that 'Europe can get its natural gas from Türkiye'," Erdogan announced.
This announcement comes days after Russian President Vladimir Putin suggested turning Turkey into a gas hub during his meeting with Erdogan, on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia summit in Kazakhstan. After the closed door meeting, Erdogan announced that Russia and Turkey will work together to build a natural gas hub in Turkey's Thrace region.
Why sourcing natural gas from US is a problem for Europe?
Thrace region of Turkey refers to the part of Turkey that is situated in Europe. It accounts for merely 3.4 percent of Turkey's landmass but hosts 15 percent of Turkey's population. The hope is that Europe will source Russian gas from Turkey as they (Europe) are not willing to source Russian gas directly from Russia. Europe can source natural gas from US but countries like Germany do not have sufficient Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) terminals. Moreover, the cost of sourcing energy from the US might prove economically problematic for Europe. According to the Economist, profitability of European manufacturing depends on cheap energy.
As per a report from the CNBC, Germany's economy minister recently criticised America over 'astronomical' natural gas prices. “Some countries, including friendly ones, sometimes achieve astronomical prices [for their gas]. Of course, that brings with it problems that we have to talk about,” the Economy Minister Robert Habeck said to Germany's regional newspaper NOZ. Countries like Germany, which is Europe's biggest economy, have long been dependent on Russian gas, which led to massive investments into energy infrastructure such as Nord Stream 1 and Nord Stream 2 pipelines, which were built for the purpose of supplying Germany with Russian gas. Now that these energy pipelines are no longer being used, Turkey might become an alternative path for indirect transportation of Russian gas into Europe.
Updated 18:31 IST, October 19th 2022