Full steam ahead: Gas is flowing through TurkStream; Putin, Erdogan and Vucic attend ceremony

Gas from TurkStream is expected to arrive to Serbia in the second half of the year

Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan have launched the long-awaited TurkStream gas pipeline.

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It will deliver Russian gas to Turkey and then on to southern European countries. The 930-kilometer gas pipeline that runs across the bottom of the Black Sea began operations on Wednesday, while the two leaders attended a special opening ceremony.

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has arrived in Istanbul, where he is attending the opening ceremony for the opening of a section of TurkStream, and where he said that this pipeline is of strategic and vital importance for the survival, future and further progress of Serbia in economic and industrial terms.

He added that he would speak not only with host President Recep Tayyip Erdogan but also with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov.

"The four of us will talk, so we will be able to hear and see how they look at what is happening in the Middle East because it's also an energy issue, an issue of oil and its price as well as gas whose price is linked to the price of oil... You see that oil prices have already increased in view of what is happening," said Vucic, adding that the four leaders will also discuss bilateral relations today, face to face.

The president added that there will be discussions today about when the Bulgarian and Serbian sections of TurkStream will connect.

(Telegraf Biznis)