Azernews.Az

By Gunay Hasanova

Turkey and Russia may create an investment fund for financing of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant (NPP) project, said Turkey’s Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci in his interview with TRT Haber news channel on August 31.

Zeybekci said that other joint projects can also be financed through this fund.

The intergovernmental agreement between Russia and Turkey on cooperation in construction and operation of the Turkey’s first nuclear power plant Akkuyu near the city of Mersin was signed in 2010.

The Akkuyu NPP is projected to generate about 35 billion kilowatt hours of electricity per year. The project cost nears $20 billion.

Previously, Russian presidential aide Yuri Usakov said that Russia’s President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan plan to discuss the construction of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power plant and the Turkish Stream pipeline at the G20 summit in China.

The construction of the NPP was frozen after the crisis in relations between Turkey and Russia.

The crisis in relations between Turkey and Russia began after the incident with the downed Russian plane. After the incident, the Russian president signed a decree on measures to ensure national security and launch special economic measures against Turkey.

Later, after months of enmity between the two countries the Presidents of Turkey and Russia met in St. Petersburg on August 9.

The meeting between Erdogan and Putin moved the relations between Turkey and Russia to a new positive direction and served as the beginning of restoration of “axis of friendship” and clean slate between Ankara and Moscow.

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