Due to rising international tensions, there may be a four-reactor construction project up for grabs in Turkey.
Various media are reporting that deteriorating relations between Turkey and Russia have lead to the cessation of work on a $20 billion nuclear plant project.
The stories, which include indications that Turkey is already looking around for a new construction partner other than Rosatom, which signed on to the build in 2013, point out that Rosatom has not officially pulled out of the project, largely due to compensation clauses in the contracts that spell out financial repercussions in the event of a unilateral decision to terminate the deal. But Turkish officials have said that Rosatom is not the only option for the project. Reuters and AFP have quoted “a senior energy official” as saying that the project had been “thrown into massive uncertainty,” as a fallout to Turkey's Nov. 24 shooting of a Russian warplane that was flying along the Turkish-Syrian border.
Rosatom is already $3.5 billion into the project, reports say. The incident occurred less than a month after a Russian passenger plane departing from Egypt crashed in the Sinai peninsula apparently due to an act of terrorism.
Before the Nov. 24 incident, Turkey and NATO denounced Russian air strikes that violated Turkey's air space. Immediately after the incident, while officials said the nuclear project would not be derailed, Russian President Vladimir Putin called the incident a “stab in the back by the terrorists' accomplices,” and said it would have “serious consequences for Russia's relationship with Turkey.” Russian Foreign Minister Sergie Lavrov, meanwhile, canceled his Nov. 25 trip to Turkey.
Moscow also responded with economic sanctions, restrictions on travel to Turkey and said it would suspend work on the Turkish Stream gas pipeline project, which is in the early stages of development.
Russia and Turkey, however, are closely aligned trading partners. Turkey's Ministry of Foreign Affairs pegged trade between the two countries at $25.2 billion within a an 11-month stretch of 2007, calling Russia the country's second most crucial trading partner after Germany.
Russian imports to Turkey accounted for 13 percent of all imports to the country. From Russia's perspective, Turkey was Russia's fourth largest destination for exports.
Construction contracts in Russia held by Turkish companies amounted to $26 billion in trade in 2007.