Turkey hopes natural gas from the TurkStream natural gas pipeline will eventually reach Serbia, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday.
Erdogan and Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic held a joint press conference at the Palace of Serbia in Belgrade where the gas pipeline was up for discussion.
The TurkStream pipeline is a mutual project between Turkey and Russia to carry Russian gas to Turkey and Europe.
"We hope that in the shortest time Serbia will also receive this natural gas. I think Russian President Putin won't think negatively on this issue, but will approach this situation positively," Erdogan said.
On Monday, Serbia’s ambassador to Turkey, Danilo Vucetic, also declared that the TurkStream pipeline can not only offer an answer to Serbia's gas needs, but can also provide a solution to Eastern European countries.
He said that if the European Union gives the green light to the European part of the project, Russia and Turkey would be ready to progress.
"We also support it but it's not a decision for us to take. We will wait for Europe's view and see," Vucetic said.
Earlier in July, the Serbian president also spoke on the TurkStream and noted that the project will end near the Turkish-Bulgarian border, from where it could be distributed to Europe.
On completion, Bulgaria and Serbia need to construct a downstream pipeline to receive the Russian gas.
However, Bulgaria and Serbia have already plans to begin construction a pipeline in 2019 scheduled for operations in 2020.
Nonetheless, Russia has so far not revealed any plans to include Serbia in the TurkStream project.
The TurkStream will send Russian gas to Turkey with the first of its two lines. The second line of the project will carry Russian gas to southern and southeastern Europe.
The total capacity of the dual pipeline system is set to be 31.5 billion cubic meters.
More than 300 kilometers of the first line of the TurkStream has already been constructed.
(Anadolu Agency)
