Recently, Turkey has proven to be a crucial bridge between Europe and Russia. Not long ago, Turkish President Recep Erdoğan managed to achieve the unachievable. He invited Russian, Ukrainian, and US officials to the negotiating table to discuss the grain export agreement, critically important for global food security. As a result, countries that are now extremely unfriendly to each other signed the deal under the auspices of President Erdogan.

Inspired by the success, Erdogan has proposed to create the Southern Gas Corridor to mitigate the energy crunch in Europe. Besides, it will help Turkey become a significant gas transit state and key energy hub. The draft of the new energy corridor is kept secret. The project will be presented at the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Uzbekistan. The project is aimed at the transit of liquefied natural gas (LNG) through Turkey to reduce Russian fuel supplies amid problems with equipment for Nord Stream 2.

The Southern Gas Corridor stretching from the Caspian Sea area in Azerbaijan requires additional investments to increase gas supplies to Europe. The EU wants to boost the capacity of the Southern Gas Corridor as well as TAP from 10 to 20 billion cubic meters. However, it needs investments to enhance the capacity of TANAP from 16 billion to 24 billion cubic meters, and then to 31 billion cubic meters, Turkish media reported.