MOSCOW, April 8 (Xinhua) -- Russia and Turkey will enhance investment cooperation and start more joint projects in various fields, Russian President Vladimir Putin said Monday.
"Much is being done to deepen the economic ties between Moscow and Ankara... Further activation of investment cooperation will be promoted by the launch of new joint projects in various sectors of the economy - industry, metallurgy, agriculture and the high-tech sector," Putin said following talks with visiting Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
According to Putin, bilateral trade of the two countries in 2018 grew by over 15 percent and exceeded 25 billion U.S. dollars, while the volume of mutual investment is approaching 20 billion U.S. dollars.
"Our main goal is bringing the commodity turnover of Russia and Turkey to the level of 100 billion U.S. dollars from current 26 billion. From the strategic point of view, we will do everything possible to achieve the goals of bilateral cooperation in economy, trade and other fields," Erdogan said.
The presidents discussed various aspects of Russian-Turkish cooperation, including in the energy sphere.
Putin noted the construction of the Akkuyu nuclear power plant in Turkey is "one of the key energy projects."
He also stressed that the two sides need to speed up the construction of the terminal on the Black Sea coast of Turkey so that the Turk Stream becomes operational by the year end.
Russia is the largest supplier of natural gas to Turkey with 24 billion cubic meters being exported in 2018, which covers about half of the needs of the country, according to Putin.