Erdoğan-Putin to meet with Idlib,Libya top on their agenda

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin will meet in Istanbul on Jan. 8 to attend the inauguration ceremony of the TurkStream natural gas pipeline.

The pipeline will transmit Russian natural gas to Turkey and Europe under the Black Sea.

Russian gas producer Gazprom started shipping about 3 billion cubic meters (bcm) of gas to Bulgaria via TurkStream on Jan. 1, replacing a route that formerly passed through Ukraine and Romania.

The pipeline crosses beneath the Black Sea from Russia to Turkey and further extends to Turkey's borders with neighboring countries. Russia is building TurkStream in two pipelines, each with an annual capacity of 15.75 bcm. The first pipeline is aimed at supplying gas to Turkey, and the second would run further from Bulgaria to Serbia and Hungary.

The TurkStream natural gas pipeline has a total capacity of 31.5 billion cubic meters, out of which the first line will carry a capacity of 15.75 billion cubic meters of Russian gas to Turkish consumers. The second line will carry another 15.75 billion cubic meters of gas to Europe via Turkey.

"Russian gas deliveries, not only for us but also for Greece and North Macedonia, are being carried through the new entry point (at our Turkish border)," Bulgartransgaz CEO Vladimir Malinov told Bulgarian national radio BNR on Jan. 5.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, Serbia President Aleksandar Vucic, Azerbaijan Energy Minister Parviz Shahbazov and Hungary Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto are expected to attend the ceremony.

On Jan. 5, Erdoğan said that he and Putin will discuss TurkStream and regional and other issues.

Erdoğan also said he hoped that Turkey and Russia can help enforce a ceasefire in Idlib of...