The presidents of Turkey, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan meet on 13 and 14 December for a tripartite summit in Turkmenistan. The leaders will mainly talk about gas supplies, disrupted by Russia’s war in Ukraine.
With our correspondent in Istanbul, Anne Andlauer
The Turkish president notably wants his country to be used for the transit of Turkmen gas to European markets. It’s an old idea, and which will probably take years to come true, but Recep Tayyip Erdogan believes the time is right to propose it again. This would involve transporting gas from Turkmenistan via the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan, then passing it through a network of gas pipelines in Georgia and Turkey to European countries. In Turkey, Turkmen gas would pass through the trans-Anatolian gas pipeline, the Tanap, which is already used to transport gas from Azerbaijan to Europe.
Turkey does not produce gas, but Recep Tayyip Erdogan dreams of making his country a global platform for transporting this energy to international markets. The war in Ukraine is bringing countries close to Turkey, such as Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, back to the fore. The latter has the fourth largest reserves in the world, but they remain largely untapped for the time being.
Last week, Ibrahim Kalin, President Erdogan’s spokesman, predicted that the ” Turkish world would play a vital role in terms of energy in the decades to come and that the ” energy corridor » built by Turkey would place it at the center of the game. On this ground as on others, Turkey is striving to become an essential power for Western countries.
► To listen also: A new pipe to quench Turkey’s thirst for energy