President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan is set to travel to Russia on Wednesday for a summit of the BRICS bloc of developing economies where he is scheduled to meet his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Erdoğan will be among the two dozen world leaders gathering in the Russian city of Kazan for the three-day summit of the alliance that the Kremlin hopes will challenge Western “hegemony.”

Putin and Erdoğan will discuss, in particular, the possibility of establishing a gas hub in Türkiye, the press service of the Russian president and his foreign policy aide, Yury Ushakov, said on Tuesday.

In a press briefing ahead of the summit, Ushakov said the meeting between Putin and Erdoğan will focus on advancing the project that aims to position Türkiye as a key center in the distribution of Russian natural gas to Europe and other regions.

The plan was first floated by Putin in 2022 after the Nord Stream pipeline explosions. Russia seeks to replace lost sales to Europe, supporting Ankara’s long-held desire to function as an exchange for energy-starved countries.

Negotiations have been ongoing, and key Russian and Turkish institutions have been discussing the project road map.

The meeting between the two leaders scheduled for Wednesday will come days after Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar said Türkiye anticipates “concrete developments” regarding the project in the coming months.

Russia’s gas exports have been severely curtailed after European countries imposed an embargo after Moscow launched its invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Lower gas quantities from Russia via Ukraine brought forward Türkiye’s role as a transfer facilitator in the region.

Russia currently supplies gas to Türkiye via the Blue Stream and TurkStream pipelines across the Black Sea.

“Efficient interaction was established with Turkish partners in the gas sphere. Blue Stream and TurkStream pipelines on the Black Sea bottom are functioning in a stable way. Head of states will also consider the project of creating the international gas hub in the territory of Turkey as part of the meeting in Kazan,” the Russian press service said.

The multi-aspect cooperation between Russia and Türkiye is developing dynamically in all the main areas and has a partnering and mutually beneficial nature, the Tass news agency cited Kremlin as saying.

“Prospects of developing trade and economic ties will be discussed during negotiations, whose volumes stood at $55.4 bln in 2023. Their negative dynamics was noted in 2023 (the decline by 11.2%); growth is being observed this year (by 6.2% as of the end of January through August),” the press service noted.

Türkiye shares a maritime border with both Ukraine and Russia in the Black Sea and has good ties with both. It opposes Russia’s invasion, as well as Western sanctions against Moscow.

Ankara played a key role in putting in place a deal to ensure grain could be shipped safely from Ukraine’s Black Sea ports. The accord remained in effect for a year.

Türkiye has urged Kyiv and Moscow to end the fighting through negotiations, repeatedly stressing its readiness for any initiative, including mediation, to lay the groundwork for peace.

‘Largest foreign policy event ever’ held by Russia

The Kremlin touted the BRICS summit as “the largest foreign policy event ever held” by Russia, with 36 countries attending and more than 20 of them represented by heads of state.

The alliance that initially comprised Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa has expanded rapidly to embrace Iran, Egypt, Ethiopia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Saudi Arabia.

Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Malaysia have formally applied to become members, and a few others have expressed an interest in joining.

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva canceled his planned trip to the summit at the last minute after suffering a head injury that caused a minor brain hemorrhage.

Observers see the summit as part of the Kremlin’s efforts to showcase support from the Global South amid spiraling tensions with the West and help expand economic and financial ties.

Proposed projects include the creation of a new payment system that would offer an alternative to SWIFT, an international financial network that Russian banks were cut off from in 2022.

The escalating conflict in the Middle East is also expected to be high on the agenda.

Putin was scheduled to hold about 20 bilateral meetings on the sidelines of the summit, including Tuesday’s encounters with China’s Xi, India’s Modi and South African President Cyril Ramaphosa.

On Thursday, Putin is also set to meet with United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who will be making his first visit to Russia in more than two years.