The leaders of Turkey and Russia held talks during a regional summit in Kyrgyzstan Tuesday, with the agenda including the potential expansion of cooperation on building nuclear power facilities in Turkey, Turkish TRT state television said.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Vladimir Putin met in the Kyrgyz capital of Bishkek on the sidelines of a summit of the ten-country Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Turkey is not an SCO member but is linked with the group as a so-called “dialogue partner.”
Erdogan said his meeting with Putin included steps to build new nuclear plants in Turkey after the country’s first goes into operation. The Akkuyu plant in southern Turkey is being built in cooperation with Russia.
“[Bilateral] relations are truly at a much more advanced level today than in any previous period,” Erdogan said, according to TRT. “With the opening of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant, we will once again take steps together toward the opening of some new power plants.”
The SCO member states are India, Belarus, China, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Russia, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan.
