Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has ordered his government to begin work on a “gas hub” in Turkey proposed by his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to export Russian gas to Europe, AFP and Agerpres reported.

“We, together with Vladimir Putin, gave our Ministry of Energy and the competent institution in Russia a mandate to carry out the task together,” Erdogan said of a possible gas hub in Turkey during an interview with reporters during a flight on his plane. returning from Astana, Kazakhstan, where he had a meeting with the Russian president on Thursday.

The head of the Turkish state also said that the work will begin immediately.

“There will be no waiting period in this matter,” Erdogan added, saying the hub could be built in the Thrace region (Eastern Thrace or Turkish Thrace.nr) in northwestern Turkey.

“We will find the most suitable place for this distribution center and build it,” Erdogan told Turkish reporters.

What Putin offered to Turkey regarding natural gas

Vladimir Putin proposed on Wednesday the creation of an international natural gas distribution center in Turkey after the damage to the NordStream gas pipeline in the Baltic Sea.

During the meeting with Erdogan, Putin emphasized that Turkey is currently the “most reliable supply route to Europe” through the Turkish Stream gas pipeline, which transports Russian gas to Turkey and several countries in southern and southeastern Europe.

The Turkish stream, which passes through the bottom of the Black Sea, can transport up to 31.5 billion cubic meters of gas per year. Bulgaria, Greece, Serbia, Romania, Hungary and North Macedonia feed on this route, writes EFE.

Putin’s proposed “gas hub” for Europe “makes no sense” given that Europeans want to reduce their dependence on hydrocarbons from Russia, France reacted on Thursday evening.

“We see no sense in creating new infrastructures that will allow us to import more Russian gas,” the French president emphasized, AFP reports.