Vladimir Putin could travel to Turkey on April 27, according to what Recep Tayyir Erdogan dropped yesterday. That day the first Turkish nuclear power plant was falsely inaugurated, built by the Russian multinational Rosatom. The Turkish president has acknowledged that Putin’s trip to the Mediterranean town of Akkuyu is not closed and that he could intervene by videoconference.
The invitation appears to have been extended last weekend, during the telephone conversation that both presidents had in connection with the extension of the Ukrainian grain transit agreement. Immediately, rumors of a visit by the Russian president, exceptional in the current wartime circumstances, began to circulate. However, on the same Monday the Kremlin denied that there was any scheduled presidential trip to Turkey.
This would have the added curiosity of the recent arrest warrant for Putin issued by the International Tribunal in The Hague. However, neither Turkey nor Russia are signatories to the treaty, nor are the United States, India or China.
“There is a possibility that President Putin will come on April 27 or in any case go online to the ceremony of this first step in Akkuyu,” Erdogan said Wednesday night on the ATV channel.
Akkuyu, on the eastern Mediterranean coast, will host the first Turkish nuclear power plant, using Russian technology. At the end of next month it will be granted the status of a nuclear facility, with the symbolic loading of fuel. Although Akkuyu is a very risky personal gamble for Erdogan, his entry into service will not come in time for the elections, due to take place in six weeks. This is the largest investment in the history of Turkey, of more than 18,000 million euros. The production capacity of the four reactors at full capacity will be 4,800 megawatts, capable of covering 10% of Turkey’s energy needs.
Also, according to some sources, the advantageous Russian financing in the construction of Akkuyu would also have served as a cushion for the Turkish lira, in free fall until recently. Rosatom will have to operate the plant for decades, anchoring the relationship between Russia and Türkiye.
The latter is not the only NATO country involved in nuclear business with Moscow. Just yesterday, the Hungarian head of state, Katalina Novák, visited the presidential palace in Ankara. The Soviet-era Paks power station provides half of Hungary’s power and is currently being expanded by Rosatom with two new reactors. However, Prime Minister Viktor Orbán reportedly said a few weeks ago that one of the two subcontracted companies – the French Framatome; the other is the German Siemens- could be gaining ground to the detriment of Rosatom.
The Russian multinational is also building nuclear reactors, currently in Egypt, a country that maintains very tense relations with Ankara but that this month has received a visit from the Prime Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey for the first time in a decade. Saudi Arabia also has advanced nuclearization plans with ostensibly civilian targets, while the first Arab nuclear power plant, the United Arab Emirates, came online the same year it signed the Abraham Accords with Israel.
On the other hand, Erdogan has shown sympathy with Russian criticism of the indirect restrictions on the export of Russian grain, which would have led Moscow to extend the Ukrainian grain transit agreement for 60 days, instead of 90, non-extendable if there are no positive changes for their interests.
(Below, Erdogan’s tweet regarding the symbolic early inauguration of the Rosatom nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, on the Turkish Mediterranean coast)
