A meeting of the Minister of Economic Development of Russia Aleksey Ulyukayev and Minister of Economy of Turkey Nihat Zeybekci took place in St. Petersburg on Tuesday in parallel to the Russian-Turkish summit. Ulyukayev said that in January-May 2016 the trade turnover between Russia and Turkey has decreased in comparison the same period in 2015 by 42.8% and its total amount was $6.1 billion. Exports amounted to $5.3 billion, import to $754.1 million. He noted that the main reason for the reduction of Russian exports was the fall in world prices for hydrocarbons and metals.
The decrease of imports from Turkey was a ban on the import of Turkish agricultural products to Russia from January 1, 2016. According to the Minister, it will be possible to restore the volume of trade cooperation between Turkey and Russia in a year or two. Restrictive measures against Turkish farmers may be canceled by the end of the year.
Nihat Zeybekci proposed to resume meetings with heads of economic departments of the two countries every three months. He said that the scheduled meeting of the joint intergovernmental commission for early October in Istanbul and offered his Russian counterpart to hold another meeting beforehand.
The project ‘Turkish Stream’ is in the focus of particular interest of economic cooperation between Moscow and Ankara.
According to the member of the expert council of the State Duma Committee on Financial Markets, Associate professor of government departments and the national security of the Diplomatic Academy of the Russian Foreign Ministry, Ivan Surma, "Four threads have been planned in the context of the Turkish stream. The first thread with capacity of 15.7 billion cubic meters of gas is about to start its work. The second thread should be discussed with the European Commission."
As for Akkuyu nuclear power plant, then, according to the expert, "Russia has invested in it and Rosatom made significant investments in the construction of a nuclear power plant in Turkey. This project will be continued and it will become the factor of economic relations and the development of relations with Turkey."
Matters of military-technical cooperation were also discussed in St. Petersburg, but without the press. Head of the Duma Defense Committee, member of the board of MIC, Vladimir Komoedov, stated the next day that Russia and Turkey have the latest technologies in the development of new weapons systems, adding that the countries have enough political will to integrate these potentials.’’
