Putin – Erdogan agree on ‘partial’ payment for Russian natural gas in rubles

LAST UPDATE: 21.44

Part of the payments for Russian natural gas from Turkey will be made in the Russian national currency, the ruble, Russian and Turkish presidents Vladimir Putin and Tayyip Erdogan respectively agreed, Russia’s Interfax news agency reported on Friday, citing Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

Russia has been seeking for months to force its currency into international settlements against the euro and dollar, against the backdrop of tough Western economic sanctions against Moscow over the Russian military’s invasion of Ukraine.

During their four-hour meeting in Sochi, southern Russia, the leaders of the two states agreed to further expand and deepen cooperation between Russia and Turkey in the fields of transport, agriculture and construction, Russian news agency TASS reported.

The two presidents “decided today to strengthen energy and economic cooperation, at the end of their meeting in Sochi (Russia), on the shores of the Black Sea,” the Kremlin said in a statement.

They agreed to “strengthen trade exchanges” between their countries and “meet mutual expectations in the fields of economy and energy,” according to a joint statement by the two leaders released by the Kremlin.

Putin and Erdogan mainly supported the introduction of “concrete measures” to strengthen cooperation in the fields of transport, agriculture, industry and finance, as well as tourism.

On the political side, the two leaders stressed “the crucial importance of relations of sincerity and trust between Russia and Turkey to ensure regional and international stability,” the statement said.

Putin and Erdogan put special emphasis on the need to observe the Istanbul agreements on the issue of grain exports from Ukraine and Russia.

“Terrorism” and Syria

The statement also said that Russia and Turkey reaffirmed their willingness to act together against “terrorist organizations in Syria.”

However, the two countries are known not to define the concept of terrorist organization in the same way in the Arab country, since Turkey calls with this term, in addition to ISIS, the Kurds of the PYD-YPG-SDF, who maintain ties with the illegal Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) in Turkey;

Moscow, on the other hand, has long characterized all Syrian opposition organizations to the Assad regime as terrorists.