Russia-Türkiye trade doubles – diplomat

Russia’s trade turnover with Türkiye has been expanding rapidly and reached $70 billion in 2022, the Russian Consul General in Istanbul Andrey Buravov told RIA Novosti on Friday.

According to Buravov, in the context of the Western sanctions against Moscow, prospects have been increasing for building cooperation with those countries interested in it.

“Undoubtedly, Türkiye is one of them. We see concrete results of this work,” he said, noting that “over the past year, in fact, we can talk about doubling our trade turnover, which approached the mark of $70 billion. In this regard, the goal of our countries’ leaders to bring trade and economic relations to $100 billion is becoming more real.” 

According to the diplomat, the current geopolitical situation allows for expanding bilateral trade relations both in terms of the supply of Turkish products to Russia amid the withdrawal of many Western companies from that market, and vice versa. The process of developing joint production and of implementing joint investments is already underway, Buravov added.

Last year, Türkiye and Russia signed a roadmap for economic cooperation that envisages bringing bilateral trade turnover to $100 billion a year. The two nations have also agreed to introduce the Russian ruble as a settlement currency for bilateral trade, including for Russian natural gas supplies.

Data shows that last summer Türkiye became one of the top five exporters to Russia. In 2021, it ranked 11th among countries exporting there, ahead of the US, France, Japan, Poland, and Italy.

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