Over the last six months, the stakes have risen in the process to procure a nuclear power station in Akkuyu, near the Mediterranean port of Mersin, a long-discussed project. In the latest step in February, Turkish and Russian delegations meeting at the Kremlin agreed a short declaration. It said that cooperation in the field of nuclear energy is an important part of their economic relations; that they are committed to further improve its 'contractual-legal' and technical framework; and that the Turkish party was glad that Russian companies showed interest in its civil nuclear programme. The declaration seems to increase the embarrassment factor for Turkey, should it choose to back out of the deal.rnThe declaration came at the end of a conference held in Moscow about nuclear power that featured the first vice-president of one of the partners in the Russian consortium bid, Timur Ivanov of Atomstroyexport. Ivanov said that the construction of a nuclear power plant in Turkey with Russian technologies and upon the terms offered at the tender would create a precedent of the build-own-operate model of private financing - when the state guarantees only the purchase of electricity. This experience, he said, can be applied under other projects in third countries.
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