Ankara- Ankara and Moscow have started taking steps to activate giant energy projects between them, on top of them TurkStream pipeline to transfer Russian gas to Europe via Turkish lands and the nuclear station to generate electricity in Akkuyu – south Turkey.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan discussed during a phone-call on Friday TurkStream pipeline and Akkuyu station – Putin hailed the high-level of economic cooperation with Turkey adding that Russia is ready to transfer gas to south Europe via Turkish lands.

Putin said that projects with Turkey are developing, underscoring the importance of the personal participation of the Turkish president in implementing various administrative procedures. He affirmed that construction works started after a period of seven months from signing the agreement in fall 2016.

In the same context, Russian Institute for Energy and Finance vice president Alexey Belogoryev said that Russia will not stop the Turkish pipeline project even if the south stream project was re-activated.

He added that Russia will not back off the execution of the project because of its political and economic obligations towards Turkey.

In a related matter, Turkey’s Transport Minister Ahmed Arslan said that Turkey has invested more than USD90 billion throughout the past decade in infrastructure projects such as bridges, highroads, tunnels, railways and airports and is still working on giant projects in this field.

Arslan added that the government will invest around TRY226 billion (USD64 billion) in infrastructure projects during the coming years and will complete around 3,500 projects in the country.