RUSSIA AND TURKEY ENERGY COOPERATION: "NOTHING

C O N F I D E N T I A L MOSCOW 000547

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR EUR/RUS, FOR EEB/ESC/IEC GALLOGLY AND WRIGHT
EUR/CARC, SCA (GALLAGHER, SUMAR)
DOE FOR HARBERT, HEGBORG, EKIMOFF
DOC FOR 4231/IEP/EUR/JBROUGHER

E.O. 12958: DECL: 02/04/2018
TAGS: EPET ENRG ECON PREL RS
SUBJECT: RUSSIA AND TURKEY ENERGY COOPERATION: "NOTHING
NEW"


Classified By: Ambassador William J. Burns for Reasons 1.4 (b/d)

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SUMMARY
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1. (C) The Turkish Embassy told us February 22nd that while
Russia is interested in expanding gas supplies to and through
Turkey, as well as participating more broadly in Turkey's
energy sector, there were no breakthroughs on energy
cooperation as a result of Turkish Foreign Minister Babacan's
February 19-20 visit to Moscow. The Russian MFA reported the
same view to us on February 26th. End summary.

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"NOTHING NEW"
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2. (C) Turkish Embassy First Secretary Ahmet Tuta told us
February 22nd that the February 19-20 visit of Turkish FM
Babacan to Moscow resulted in "nothing new" on the energy
front, despite various press headlines to the contrary. He
said the visit was merely to reciprocate Russian FM Lavrov's
2006 visit to Turkey and to "follow up" on Putin's 2004 trip
that resulted in an MOU between Gazprom and Turkey's BOTAS.
Tuta explained that there have been and continue to be
"ongoing negotiations" on expanding Russian gas exports to
and through Turkey, but no breakthroughs have been reached
recently. Tuta said Babacan's visit also included general
discussions on Russian interest in buying into refineries and
gas stations in Turkey, as well as on the proposed
Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline. He added, however, that the
Russian side seemed more interested in pursuing the
Burgas-Alexandropoulis pipeline (BAP) than in Samsun-Ceyhan.


3. (C) Tuta said Russia is also interested in helping Turkey
to develop nuclear power plants and would like to finalize an
agreement on nuclear cooperation. Turkey is still mulling
its options with regard to nuclear cooperation, including the
proposed participation of U.S., Canadian, and French
companies that are interested in doing business in Turkey.


4. (C) Russian MFA Southeast Europe section head Andrey
Buravov echoed Tuta, telling us February 26th that the visit
was largely to reciprocate for Lavrov's visit to Turkey. He
said the visit was aimed at "strengthening political and
economic ties," but could not point to any concrete results
from the meetings. Buravov simply noted the importance of
the economic relationship, emphasizing relevant statistics --
two-way trade of between $22 and $28 billion (depending on
whose statistics are used),total accumulated two-way FDI of
$10 billion, and 2.5 million Russian visits to Turkey last
year.
BURNS