Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said Tuesday that the construction of a gas hub in Türkiye can help resolve the global energy crisis while exports of agricultural products to the "poorest" countries under the Black Sea Grain Initiative can contribute toward resolving the global food crisis.
Speaking via video conference at an online ministerial meeting of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), Lavrov said the reason for both crises is Western sanctions.
"The Russian side has announced key initiatives to overcome the current crises in the energy and food sectors in the poor countries of the Global South, provoked by the illegitimate sanctions of the collective West and its previous systemic miscalculations.
"In concrete terms, this is the creation of a gas distribution center in Türkiye and giving priority to the exporting of agricultural products to the most needy poor countries as part of the package of the Black Sea Grain Initiative," he said.
The next meeting of the BSEC foreign ministers is slated for the second half of 2023 in Türkiye.
Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed the idea of a Turkish gas hub last year as European countries moved to sharply cut their imports of Russian gas in response to Moscow’s military actions in Ukraine.
Putin floated the idea of the hub in Türkiye after unexplained explosions damaged Nord Stream gas pipelines linking Russia to Germany under the Baltic Sea.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov had first said in February that there could be delays with the plan because of the devastating earthquakes that struck southeast Türkiye and Syria, causing widespread destruction across the region.
Türkiye, a NATO member state that has maintained relations with both Russia and Ukraine, currently imports all its gas needs and has extensive liquefied natural gas (LNG) import infrastructure. Ankara believes it can leverage its existing and new trade relations to become a gas hub.
