Turkey and Russia: Visa-free travel, but no gas deal - UPDATE

The leaders of Turkey and Russia, calling nuclear energy safe, promised on Wednesday to press ahead with the construction of a Russian atomic power plant in Turkey despite Japan's nuclear crisis.

Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke as Japan battled to contain radiation leaks from the Daiichi complex in Fukushima that was stricken by last Friday's devastating earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

"Our investments will continue in the light of logic, science and experiment, we will take every possible precaution," Erdogan said.

"But there are things that human power is inadequate to prevent, like natural disasters. This will not affect our plans and schedule for the nuclear power plant."

He later told Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin he hoped work to lay the foundation for the plant could begin in late April or early May.

Turkey and Russia signed an agreement last May for Russian state nuclear corporation Rosatom to build a $20 billion, four-reactor plant near the coastal city of Mersin, some 25 km (15 miles) from an active fault line.

"Everyone is asking a simple question: can atomic energy be safe?" Medvedev told a news conference in Moscow after talks with Erdogan.

"The answer is clear: it can be and is safe, but for this it is necessary to make the right decisions about the location of the plant, about the design and the operator."

Japan's nuclear crisis is developing according to the "worst-case scenario" and that would have an effect on Rosatom's plans for building nuclear power plants abroad, Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko said.


Erdogan's Moscow visit was focused on energy affairs but the two sides failed to achieve a breakthrough on gas cooperation on Wednesday.

Turkey, which imports 64 percent of its gas from Russia, is looking for discounts due to a slump in demand resulting from the recent global recession, but met resistance from Medvedev.

The Kremlin leader said Russia wanted to stick to the principle of 'take or pay' of gas export monopoly Gazprom's long-term supply contracts, but did not rule out some adjustments to take into account market conditions.

"We intend to maintain our existing approach, but ... we have told our Turkish partners that in certain cases, we are willing to consider other approaches," Medvedev said.

"This is a question that should be resolved on the basis of existing contracts and the goodwill of both sides."

Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin said separately that no agreement has been reached with Turkey on the proposed South Stream gas pipeline that would cross its Black Sea territorial waters.

Turkey is a major player in the rival $10.8 billion Nabucco project, backed by the European Union, to pipe gas from Caspian energy producers such as Azerbaijan to Europe.


Meanhwile, Turkish and Russian nationals will be able travel between the two countries without obtaining a visa starting next month.

Officials of the two countries exchanged notes on Wednesday regarding a visa-free regime during Erdogan's visit to Moscow.

Accordingly, visa-free travel will begin on April 16, 30 days after the exchange of notes, which paves the for 30 days of visa-free travel within a 90-day period.

In May 2010, Turkey and Russia signed a visa liberalization agreement during Russian President Dmitry Medvedev's visit to Ankara. Earlier this year, officials of the two countries signed a readmission agreement to take a step forward for completing procedures of visa-free regime.

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Russian President Dmitry Medvedev described Turkey as a privileged partner and said that relations between Turkey and Russia reached a multidimensional level, Anadolu Agency reported.

At a joint press conference with Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan following the High-Level Consultative Council meeting in Moscow, Medvedev said that Turkey and Russia aimed at increasing trade volume to 100 billion USD in the next five years.

Trade between Turkey and Russia was 25 billion USD in 2010.

"We want to further improve relations between large companies and SMEs. We also focused on energy issues such as South Stream natural gas pipeline and Samsun-Ceyhan oil pipeline," Medvedev said. "Turkey is our privileged partner. We also want to further improve our relations especially on telecommunication, medicine, space research, construction, agriculture and metallurgy."

Medvedev said his meeting with Erdogan discussed also energy safety after the disaster in Japan and Turkey's first nuclear power plant to be built by Russia.

He said, "it is very important to make the right decision on location of the power plant. Nuclear energy is a necessity for the mankind."

Medvedev also called on Turkish companies to offer bids for construction of sports facilities to be built in Sochi, the host city of 2014 Winter Olympics.

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Turkey's prime minister said on Wednesday that energy had an important place in his meeting with the Russian leader, Anadolu Agency reported.

Turkish and Russian leaders met in the Russian capital of Moscow, and mainly discussed energy issues, particularly the nuclear power plant to be built in Akkuyu town of Turkey's southern province of Mersin.

"Every investment may have a negative result, however you cannot give up an investment just because it may have a negative result," Erdogan told a joint press conference with Medvedev.

Erdogan's remarks came after a nuclear disaster in Japan, caused by a devastating earthquake and tsunami. Erdogan said there were tube tunnels Turkey was constructing beneath the sea and those investments were quake-resistant and quake-resistance was important when preparing projects.

In May 2010, Turkey and Russia signed a deal for construction of Turkey's first nuclear power plant in Akkuyu, a small town on the Mediterranean coast, which is expected to cost about 20 billion USD. Russian state-owned atomic power company ROSATOM is likely to start building the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in 2013 and the first reactor is planned to generate electricity in 2018.

Russia will build four 1,200 megawatt units on Akkuyu site, and run the power plant for 60 years. Turkish state-owned electricity corporation has guaranteed to buy a fixed amount of the plant's output over the first 15 years starting from initial commercial operation at a reported price of 12.35 US cents per kWh, with the rest of the electricity to be sold on the open market by the project company.

Erdogan said two countries were also working on the South Stream Natural Gas Pipeline Project and Samsun-Ceyhan Oil Pipeline Project, and they were willing to complete the projects.

A Turkish-Russian partnership, opened in the southern Turkish town of Iskenderun, ensured employment for 1,500 people, he added.


/Trend, Hurriyet Daily News/