MESOPOTAMIA NEWS : NUCLEAR ERDOGAN EN MARCHE – Putin In Ankara In First Foreign Trip Since Election Win

April 03, 2018 07:32 GMT –      RFE/RL – RADIO FREE EUROPE – Russian President Vladimir Putin has arrived in Ankara and is set to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan as part of his first trip abroad since winning reelection last month.The Kremlin said that Putin and Erdogan would follow a groundbreaking ceremony for Turkey’s first nuclear power plant via video conference on April 3. The facility is being built with Russian collaboration.

They were also expected to discuss bilateral trade and economic cooperation, details on Turkey’s plans to buy surface-to-air missile systems from Russia, as well as the situation in Syria.On April 4, the Russian and Turkish leaders will be joined in Ankara by Iranian President Hassan Rohani for trilateral talks on the seven-year Syrian conflict, in which the three countries are deeply involved.Relations between Russia and Turkey soured badly after Turkish jets shot down a Russian warplane near the Syrian border in November 2015, but Putin and Erdogan have taken steps to mend ties since then as their countries’ relations with the West continued to deteriorate.

Ankara has granted Russian state nuclear energy conglomerate Rosatom a construction license to start work on the first unit of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant on Turkey’s Mediterranean coast.

Turkey expects its first nuclear power station to become functional by the year 2023, but the project to build the four-unit plant with an estimated cost of $20 billion has been beset by delays.The two countries are also building the TurkStream pipeline, estimated to be worth more than $12 billion, to transport Russian gas to Turkey.And Ankara is negotiating the purchase of S-400 missile defense systems from Russia, raising eyebrows among some of Turkey’s NATO allies.  www.mesop.de