Türkiye and Russia signed a new cooperation protocol that charts a road map for their economic relations in the coming years.
The two countries aim to raise trade exchange to $100 billion and deepen cooperation in energy, agriculture, industry, tourism, transportation, and customs.
Over the past two days, Ankara hosted meetings on cooperation between Türkiye and Russia in energy, tourism, and investment.
The officials also attended the 18th meeting of the joint intergovernmental Russian-Turkish Commission on trade and economic cooperation.
Russian Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandr Novak led the Russian delegation, while Trade Minister Omer Bolat headed the Turkish delegation. They witnessed the signing of the trade cooperation protocol.
- Promote exchange
Bolat stressed the desire of the two countries to advance their relations to a higher level by implementing the protocol's provisions as a result of joint work, which includes many areas such as trade, customs, energy, agriculture, industry, standardization, transportation, and tourism.
The Turkish minister explained that the protocol can be described as a road map determining the economic relations between both nations.
They also agreed to increase the use of the two countries' national currencies in the trade exchange.
Bolat revealed that the trade volume between the two countries in the energy sector dropped slightly due to recent international developments, adding that the trade volume reached a record high of $68 billion in 2022.
He expected that by the end of this year, exports from Türkiye would reach about $11 billion and $46 billion in exports from Russia.
The two sides confirmed their endeavor to raise their trade exchange to $100 billion during the meeting of the Joint Economic Committee, which was held under the chairmanship of Turkish Vice President Cevdet Yilmaz and Novak.
During the meeting, the two sides discussed energy, investment, and tourism and stressed the importance of diversifying mutual investments, especially in port infrastructure and diversifying exported commercial goods.
- Natural gas hub
Novak confirmed that the discussions between the two sides were transparent and constructive, during which issues of future cooperation were identified, and witnessed a convergence of the two sides' positions on some areas of bilateral cooperation.
He pointed to positive progress in all areas of cooperation between Russia and Türkiye.
The Deputy Prime Minister said the two countries are expected to reach an agreement on establishing a natural gas hub in Türkiye, based on a previous agreement between presidents Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin.
Russia's Gazprom and the Turkish Petroleum Pipeline Company (Botash) are cooperating closely and discussing the project's road map, said Novak, expressing his confidence that the two sides will agree on the project's implementation.
Last year, Putin proposed building a natural gas hub in Türkiye to his Turkish counterpart, which Türkiye welcomed.
Discussions between Moscow and Ankara regarding the project did not result in significant progress, although both sides confirmed their intention to move forward.
