Monday, October 10, 2016

Russian President Putin And Turkish President Erdogan To Meet This Week To Discuss Energy (But Syria is What They Will Discuss)

President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan meets with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, in Moscow on Sept. 23. (Photo: Cihan)

The Independent: Putin and Erdogan to meet in Istanbul to discuss energy issues – but Syria will be the real talking point

As relations between Russia and Turkey thaw, those between Ankara and Washington are getting chillier. The US will very much be a factor in what transpires in Istanbul this week

While the US is focused on latest revelations about Donald Trump and the turmoil they are causing in the run-up to the elections, a meeting is due to take place in Istanbul between Vladimir Putin and Recep Tayyip Erdogan which is likely to have highly significant international strategic consequences.

The official reason for the Russian President’s visit to Turkey on Monday is the World Energy Congress and there are, indeed, important energy issues which both Ankara and Moscow are keen to discuss. Talks on the Turkish Stream project, suspended after the Turks shot down a Russian warplane last November, have now resumed and will be pursued vigorously. The aim of the project is to transport 63bn cubic meters of natural gas a year to Europe through pipelines to the Bosphorous.

Read more ....

WNU Editor: Putin does not trust Erdogan .... but in the current climate there appears to be a "meeting of minds" between Erdogan and Putin on what to do in Syria. What also helps Putin is Erdogan's belief that the U.S. was involved on some level in the attempted coup against him this summer .... and I am sure that he is going to exploit it when they meet this week.

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