Washington came to Erdogan’s defense in the aftermath of Moscow’s claims as State Department spokesman Mark Toner said the USA is confident that Ankara “is not complicit in Islamic State oil smuggling”.
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“It is possible to find different suppliers”, Erdoğan said, referring to Qatar and Azerbaijan.
He said Russian Federation had made “no sign” yet that the crisis would affect their energy partnership, including joint work on the Akkuyu nuclear plant in southern Turkey.
Since Turkey shot down a Russian fighter jet on November 24, the U.S. has quietly put on hold a long-standing request for its North Atlantic Treaty Organisation ally to play a more active role in the US-led air war against the Islamic State.
Addressing concerns over possible natural gas shortages, Erdogan said Turkey can also use its renewable energy resources.
He denied Russian assertions that Moscow had suspended talks with Turkey on the planned TurkStream natural gas pipeline project, saying Turkey was the one to halt work. Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a “stab in the back”, and vowed to respond accordingly, after the jet downing.
Earlier this week, Russian Federation said that despite Washington’s claims, the USA and its partners are actually not bombing ISIS oil infrastructure or convoys.
Serko Cevdet, head of the KRG’s energy commission, for his part, told Anadolu Agency that recently published Russian satellite images showed tankers carrying oil from the Kurdish region to Turkey’s Port of Ceyhan. “We will stand firm”.
“For purposes of protecting national security and national interests of the Russian Federation, protection of the citizens of the Russian Federation from criminal or any other illegal activities”, the decree stipulates bans or restrictions for organizations under Turkey’s jurisdiction to conduct certain types of activity within Russia in line with the register drafted by Russia’s government.
“We continued to export goods”.
Davutoglu said the county does not have enough money and asked the USA to partially fund the initiative.
“We are not speaking with their language now”. “We discussed all issues in a positive atmosphere”.
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While Putin spoke to parliament, foreign ministers from Ankara and Moscow met on the sidelines at a conference in Europe.
