ANKARA, Oct. 14 (Xinhua) -- Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the country's Thrace region could be the best place to serve as an energy hub after his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin proposed to increase Russia's gas exports through Turkish territory.
"Thrace is seen as the most important place for such a distribution center," Erdogan told journalists on his flight from Kazakhstan back to Türkiye, semi-official Anadolu Agency reported.
The Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Ministry and Russia's Gazprom company were instructed to jointly work on this project after Erdogan and Putin met in Astana on Thursday, according to the Turkish president.
Putin proposed to set up a gas hub in Türkiye by building new pipelines in parallel to the TurkStream gas pipeline running through the Black Sea, after the Nord Stream pipelines were recently damaged in a series of explosions.
Türkiye would be the best route for redirecting gas supplies to Europe, Putin told reporters on Thursday during a meeting with Erdogan on the sidelines of a regional summit in Kazakhstan.
"We could easily regulate (prices) at a normal market level, without any political overtones," with this new energy hub, the Russian leader said.
Several leaks have been detected on the Nord Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines in the Baltic Sea near Denmark and Sweden after the explosions, an incident reportedly being investigated as probable sabotage.
Putin's proposal comes amid Western sanctions drive against Russia which Türkiye has not joined, as Ankara has maintained close ties with both Moscow and Kiev and positioned itself as a mediator since a conflict broke out between the two sides in late February. ■
