China, Turkey ink 'energy transition' deal during Bayraktar's visit

ANKARA — Turkey and China signed a memorandum of understanding for cooperation on energy transition, the Turkish Trade Ministry said on Wednesday. 

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar and the head of China's National Energy Administration signed the MOU on "cooperation in the field of energy transition" during their meeting in Beijing on Tuesday, the ministry said.

“We are aiming to materialize concrete projects as soon as possible,” Bayraktar said on the social media platform X. He added that the pair also discussed cooperation opportunities between the two countries, particularly on nuclear energy and renewable energy.

Bayraktar, who traveled to China earlier this week, met with representatives from China's State Power Investment Corporation, one of China's top five power generators. “We discussed our projects in the fields of nuclear and renewable energy and set out our road map,” he said after the meeting on Monday.

SPIC is also one of China's three nuclear power developers and operators. Turkey is planning to build two new nuclear plants in the country’s northwest as well as the Black Sea region in addition to the Russian-built Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in the country’s southeast. Ankara is in talks with Russia, China and South Korea for those plants, according to Turkish officials.

As part of his visit, Bayraktar also met with Chinese National Resources Minister Wang Guanghua to discuss ways to deepen cooperation in the fields of mining between the two countries, particularly in critical minerals and rare earth minerals, the Turkish Energy Ministry said.

The visit to China comes a week after Bayraktar’s visit to the United States, which resulted in the signing of a $1.1 billion LNG agreement between US energy giant ExxonMobil and Turkey’s state-owned gas company Botas.