Ankara, Moscow set to sign nuclear power plant agreement

Prior to Russian President Dimity Medvedev's arrival in Turkey last evening for a two-day official visit, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin yesterday met with Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz in Ankara. Speaking at a joint press conference afterwards, Yildiz said that a bilateral deal on building a nuclear power plant in Turkey would be signed during Medvedev's visit. "There are no problems or negative developments concerning the agreement," Yildiz said. A Turkish-Russian consortium led by Russia's Atomstroyexport had been the only bidder in a 2008 tender to build the country's first nuclear power plant, but Turkey's state-run electricity wholesaler TETAS canceled the tender last November. This January, during Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan's official visit to Moscow, Turkey and Russia signed a joint declaration on cooperating to build a nuclear power plant in Turkey. For his part, Sechin said that up to one-third of the plant's construction would be done by Turkish firms. Stating that Russia wants to maintain natural gas cooperation with Turkey, which he called a big gas consumer, Seching said efforts are underway to cut the price of natural gas supplied by Gazprom to Turkey. Russian-Turkish relations are more than just relations between two neighbors, and Moscow is very pleased about this, Sechin said. When it comes to energy, Russia's priorities are "nuclear energy and transporting natural gas and oil," Sechin stressed. Touching on the Samsun-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline, Sechin said Russia values the project greatly and is working hard on it, but criticized the project's Bulgarian partners for a lack of cooperation. Sechin also met with State Minister for Foreign Trade Zafer Caglayan, who welcomed Sechin's offer to establish a joint Turkish-Russian bank. Caglayan said this would do much to boost bilateral trade ties. In other news, the groundwork for establishing a Turkish-Russian university is almost ready. During Medvedev's visit, a memorandum of understanding is expected to be signed between the Board of Higher Education (YOK) and Russia's Education and Science Ministry on cooperation in higher education. The planned university will give a science- and technology-based education in both Turkish and Russian.