Putin To Visit Turkey In First Trip To NATO Country Since War

(Bloomberg) -- Turkey said Vladimir Putin is expected to visit soon, in what would be the Russian leader’s first trip to a NATO-member country since he ordered the invasion of Ukraine two years ago.

President Recep Tayyip Erdogan is expected to meet with Putin primarily to discuss energy cooperation and security in Syria, Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan told AHaber television on Sunday. The war in Ukraine will likely be a central topic, Putin’s aide Yury Ushakov said last week, according to Interfax. Putin will visit Turkey on Feb. 12, Reuters reported last week.

Putin’s trips abroad have been limited due to the risk of possible arrest on a warrant from the International Criminal Court for alleged war crimes.

How War Crimes Warrant Limits Where Putin Can Travel: QuickTake

The ICC issued the warrant against Putin on March 17 for war crimes related to the alleged abduction of children from Ukraine. Turkey isn’t a signatory to the Rome Statute that established the tribunal and isn’t bound by its decisions.

Erdogan has sought to broker peace between the warring parties and to revive a UN-backed deal that he helped engineer in 2022 that had allowed Ukrainian grain exports via the Black Sea. Russia abandoned the deal in July 2023, and Erdogan has urged world leaders to meet some of Russia’s demands including facilitating insurance of Russian food and fertilizer exports by Lloyd’s of London and to reconnect Moscow to the SWIFT system for international payments to persuade Putin to return to the deal.

“Our president will definitely discuss this issue with Putin,” Fidan said, signaling a new mechanism for Ukrainian grain exports. 

“It is an issue that we are currently discussing with Russia. There are talks going especially between the UN, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey,” he added. “We can develop a new method for bringing grain to world markets.”

Turkey’s Erdogan Rejects ‘Negative Attitude’ Toward Putin

Russia and Ukraine are both major producers of grain, and the war has increasingly threatened the safe passage of shipments. While Ukraine transported some of its grain via its Black Sea corridor since mid-September, strong shipments are still needed to clear last year’s larger-than-expected harvest.

“We want to formalize this de facto shipping from Ukraine with a new mechanism,” Fidan said. “Russians have some demands in return.”

Russia has worked to forge closer energy, political and economic ties with Turkey after relations with the European Union dramatically deteriorated following its war in Ukraine. For his part, Erdogan relied on his rapport with Putin to seek discounts and deferrals in payments for energy imports from Russia to alleviate pressure on the lira amid a deep cost-of-living crisis.

While providing combat drones to Ukraine’s military, Turkey has refused to join sanctions against Russia which is a critical energy supplier for Turkey. Russia provided a quarter of Turkey’s crude oil imports and around 40% of its natural gas purchases in 2022, giving Moscow a huge surplus in bilateral trade. 

The two countries are now seeking a deal on a planned natural gas hub in Turkey. Last year, Putin laid out plans to establish a gas-trading hub in Turkey, including the possibility of laying more undersea pipelines across the Black Sea. Erdogan is aspiring to use Turkey’s proximity to Caspian Sea gas fields to eventually be a key route for Europe-bound supplies.

Turkey and Russia are already cooperating on construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power station in southern Turkey, with a budget of some $20 billion.

“We are talking about a huge complex of almost 5 gigawatts,” Fidan said of Akkuyu, which is designed to have a capacity of 4.8 gigawatts. “Supplying cheap energy is a very strategic issue for a country like Turkey, which largely derives its national income from industry.”

More stories like this are available on bloomberg.com

©2024 Bloomberg L.P.