Davutoglu: "Turkey has made strides towards becoming a global energy hub"

Through recent moves, Turkey has made a great progress towards becoming the most important crossroads in the global flow of energy, Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu told reporters over the weekend during a visit to the central Anatolia province of Konya, his hometown, where he held talks with both Governor Tahir Akyürek and local people. Dismissing the idea that the Nabucco and South Stream pipelines are rivals, Davutoglu said, "We do not see such strategic projects as rivaling each other but instead as complementary to one another." Turkey will serve as a secure energy route which strengthens both regional economic integration and global economic structure, he added. "Any cooperation with the European Union and the Nabucco project, which connects the EU and Turkey, is a strategic priority for Turkey," he said. "It should be assessed as a whole. The Nabucco agreement we signed in July demonstrated Turkey's central importance for energy suppliers and energy consumers between the East and West." He added that under agreements with Russia, the South Stream and Samsun-Ceyhan energy routes show Turkey's integral role in connecting the East and West. "Being the intersection of the East-West and North-South energy corridors is a natural result of Turkey's geography, which lies at the intersection of East and West, and North and South," he said. Stating that the Samsun-Ceyhan project will reduce oil transportation pressure on the Turkish Straits, Davutoglu said this will decrease the risk to the most beautiful city in the world, Istanbul. Saying that Turkey's efforts over the last two months prove that it is the most important crossroads for the flow of global energy, Davutoglu added that such projects will continue. “Turkey will enhance its increasing role in world economic politics, participating in both transportation and trade in the East-West and North-South energy routes for years,” he said. Davutoglu also said that high-level strategic annual meetings at the intergovernmental level would be held between Turkey and Russia, similar to ones between Turkey and Iraq, in order to realize a number of recent bilateral agreements signed during Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit last week.