President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin inaugurated a new gas pipeline linking their countries at a ceremony in Istanbul on Wednesday with tensions over Libya and Syria also on the agenda. Erdogan described the Turkstream pipelines -- which will deliver Russian gas to Turkey and Europe via the Black Sea -- as a "project of historic importance" for relations between their countries. TurkStream and the Nord Stream pipelines under the Baltic allow Russia to increase gas supplies to Europe without having to rely on Ukraine. Erdogan has called for a truce in Idlib, following previous temporary halts to the fighting brokered with Russia in late 2018 and updated in August last year. Putin earned goodwill in Turkey after his quick support for Erdogan following an attempted coup in July 2016.

Source: Libya Today January 08, 2020 04:41 UTC