Nuclear deal with China may be finalized soon: Minister

Türkiye may finalize a deal with China on the construction of a nuclear power plant in the Thrace region soon, Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar has said.

"If we work tirelessly on this, in a few months' time we hope to finalize this inter-governmental agreement," Bayraktar told Chinese broadcaster CGTN in an interview.

Bayraktar recently traveled to China to hold talks with Chinese government officials and executives of several Chinese companies. During his visit, Türkiye and China inked a memorandum of understanding (MoU) to cooperate in the field of energy transition.

"We're going to be able to finalize all these negotiations with the Chinese company. NEA [the National Energy Administration] has full support for this [nuclear] project and it will be a landmark project between Türkiye and China," Bayraktar told the Chinese broadcaster.

Russia is building Türkiye's first nuclear plant in southern Türkiye on the Mediterranean coast. The plant will have a total installed capacity of 4,800 megawatts. It will produce 35 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity annually, about 10 percent of the country's power consumption, when it becomes fully operational.

Türkiye is willing to cooperate with China in mining, nuclear and renewable energy to meet challenges of growing energy demand, reducing energy import dependency and mitigating climate change, the minister said in the interview.

"Most likely, we are going to sign an agreement with Ministry of Natural Resources of China on a cooperation framework in mining. Especially, we want to focus on critical minerals," Bayraktar added.

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