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Turkey wants increase of Russian gas supply
April 22, 2013, 11:03 am

[AP]

Russia is Turkey’s largest importer of gas [AP]

Russia and Turkey want to increase bilateral trade threefold up to $100 billion, the meeting of the intergovernmental commission for trade and economic cooperation decided in Antalya over the weekend.

Russian and Turkish delegations said they plan to simplify laws regulating trade and investment procedures.

After the meet, Russian energy minister Alexander Novak and his Turkish counterpart Taner Yildiz said they are ready to discuss the increase of Russian gas supplies to Turkey.

The gas will be transported by either the Blue Stream, trans-Black Sea gas pipeline that carries natural gas from Russia into Turkey, or a trans-Baikal pipeline.

In November last year private Turkish companies signed a long-term contract with Gazprom for the supply of Russian gas.

Russia is Turkey’s largest importer of gas, followed by Iran and Azerbaijan.

“The sides showed interest in establishing trade and economic cooperation between Russia’s regions and Turkey’s industrial areas in car production, forestry, health protection, telecommunication and other fields,” says a new statement of the commission.

Currently Russia has an assembly line of “Gazel Business” cars, and the two sides are considering further ways of transferring other production in Turkish territory.

Over 1,500 Russian companies are currently operating in Turkey while Turkish contractors are involved in projects in Russia worth a total of $50 billion.

Daria Chernyshova