Erdogan: Agreed with Putin to form natural gas hub in Türkiye

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan says he has agreed with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin to form a natural gas hub in Türkiye.

"Türkiye will be a hub for natural gas as well. In our last meeting, we agreed with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin on this issue." Erdogan said at the Justice and Development (AK) Party's group meeting in the capital Ankara on Wednesday.

 "We will create a hub here with gas coming from Russia," he added.

"And in his own words, Putin announced to the world that 'Europe can get its natural gas from Türkiye'," Erdogan said.

Erdogan said Western countries are concerned about solving the energy crisis but Türkiye "does not have such a problem."

READ MORE: Ankara, Moscow to jointly work on building gas hub in Türkiye: Erdogan

Last week, on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia summit in the Kazakh capital Astana, Erdogan held a closed-door meeting with Putin, who had proposed building a natural gas hub in Türkiye.

After the meeting, Erdogan announced that Ankara and Moscow will work jointly on building a natural gas hub in Türkiye's Thrace region.

READ MORE: Putin proposes building gas hub in Türkiye in meeting with Erdogan