From the Liveblog of
Thursday, October 5, 2023
Turkey’s energy minister says he’ll visit Israel soon for talks on gas delivery
Lazar Berman is The Times of Israel's diplomatic reporter
Turkey’s Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar says that he will visit Israel “in the next couple of weeks,” and that the focus will be on the delivery of Israeli natural gas to Turkey.
Speaking to Turkey’s NTFV, Bayraktar says that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan agreed during their September meeting in New York that he would negotiate the delivery of gas face-to-face with Energy Minister Israel Katz “during a trip to Israel in November which we are planning as well as meeting companies [in Israel] working in that field.”
“We are talking about more comprehensive energy cooperation but the delivery of Israeli gas to Turkey and to Europe via Turkey is the ‘flagship’ or among the top priorities,” he says.
“We are talking about part of the gas absolutely [staying] in Turkey and part of it going to Europe to ensure European supply security,” he explains, saying that preparations have already been made to make the project a reality.
