ANKARA

Türkiye will be a natural gas hub after having agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Wednesday.

"Türkiye will be a hub for natural gas as well. In our last meeting, we agreed with (Russian President Vladimir) Putin on this issue. We will create a hub here with Turkish gas coming from Russia," Erdogan said at the Justice and Development (AK) Party's group meeting in the capital Ankara.

"And in his own words, Putin announced to the world that 'Europe can get its natural gas from Türkiye'," Erdogan added.

Erdogan said concerns are rising in Western countries amid energy crises, adding that Türkiye "does not have such a problem."

Last week, on the sidelines of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia summit in the Kazakh capital Astana, Erdogan held a closed-door meeting with Putin, who had proposed building a natural gas hub in Türkiye.

After the meeting, Erdogan announced that Ankara and Moscow will work jointly on building a natural gas hub in Türkiye's Thrace region after a Russian proposal.