Russian President Vladimir Putin confirmed Friday in Samarkand the "
next
" delivery of natural gas to Turkey, described as a "
reliable partner
" and announced that a "
quarter
" of these deliveries will be paid in rubles.
This clarification, during his bilateral meeting with his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan, confirms the agreement reached between the two leaders during their previous meeting in early August in Sochi, in southern Russia.
"
Our agreement should take effect soon, allowing us to deliver natural gas to Turkey, 25% of which will be payable in roubles,
" declared Vladimir Putin, during a bilateral meeting lasting more than an hour on the sidelines of the summit of the Organization of Shanghai cooperation in Uzbekistan.
The share of these gas deliveries paid for in Russian currency had not been stipulated during their previous exchanges.
Vladimir Putin, whose country has been subject to Western sanctions since it invaded Ukraine on February 24, also announced that he had received “
the signal
” authorizing the export of Russian products from Turkish ports.
Read alsoPrice increases, contract changes… The hassle of customers of alternative gas and electricity suppliers
"
Our companies have received the signal that they will be able to export their products from Turkey
", which he described as a "
reliable partner
", expressing the wish to "
significantly increase
" trade with it.
Ankara was a key player in the conclusion in July, under the aegis of the United Nations, of an agreement with kyiv and Moscow allowing the export of Ukrainian cereals via the Black Sea and the Bosphorus.
But Moscow has since complained that the part of the agreement signed in parallel on the export of Russian agricultural products had remained without effect.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan has managed to maintain since the start of the war relations with kyiv and Moscow, whose representatives he has twice brought together.
Before their tete-a-tete, he had called on Russia to end the war in Ukraine “
as soon as possible
”.
"
We are working to end the conflict in Ukraine as quickly as possible through diplomatic channels
," he said to the participants at the summit, in the presence of Vladimir Putin in particular.
But, while providing combat drones to kyiv, Recep Tayyip Erdogan has multiplied in recent months conciliatory gestures towards Moscow, particularly in terms of trade, while his country is facing a serious economic crisis and official inflation of more than 80%, nine months before the Turkish presidential election.
