Putin: "Europe should be grateful for uninterrupted delivery through TurkStream"

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish counterpart Recep Tayyip Erdogan met for talks in Russia's Black Sea resort city of Sochi on Friday.

Turkish President brought up the issue of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant project in the meeting, stressing his expectation for the project to be completed without delay, Russian news agency TASS reported.

"It is highly important to work and complete the Akkuyu NPP on schedule, considering that the plant will make it possible to cover 20% of Turkey’s power demands," Erdogan said.

The power plant is to be built, owned and operated by a subsidiary of Rosatom, the Russian state-owned nuclear energy corporation.

Russian President said that European countries should be grateful for Turkey's role in delivering Russian natural gas through TurkStream pipeline, Russian media Interfax reported.

"In contrast to every other route supplying our hydrocarbons, TurkStream has been operating smoothly, rhythmically and without interruption," Putin said in his opening remarks at the talks. "So, I believe European partners should be grateful to Turkey for providing continuous transit of our gas to the European market."

It was earlier announced by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitriy Peskov that a press conference after the meeting was no planned.