Invest News DetailBusinessWeek - European opinion-makers followed Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's visit to Türkiye in August with keen interest. Among the 20 or so agreements he and his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, signed was one initiating Türkiye's participation in the South Stream natural-gas pipeline to Europe – coming less than a month after Türkiye hosted a summit for the European Union countries participating in the Nabucco project, which is generally perceived as a rival to Russia's South Stream. Since Putin's visit to Ankara, pundits and analysts have continued to speculate on the future of Turkish-Russian relations, the dynamics of their fast-growing bilateral trade (behind the EU, Russia is Türkiye's prime trade partner) or Russia being an important supplier of Ankara's growing energy demand. Ozlem Turkone, a member of parliament for Istanbul and deputy chair of the ruling Justice and Development Party's foreign affairs department said, “Becoming an energy hub for the surrounding European and Asian regions has always been Türkiye's objective, and participating in both the Nabucco and South Stream pipelines is part of it. Europe needs to diversify its sources of energy, and so does Türkiye. Everyone will benefit from our engagement in both projects." Similar opinions were expressed by Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Interviewed by the Turkish Kanal 7 TV channel, the minister said the South Stream project "creates a North-South energy corridor, similar to the East-West corridor of Nabucco," and therefore the two pipelines "are not substitutes for each other." South Stream will cross Turkish waters in the Black Sea before coming ashore in Bulgaria, while Nabucco is set to traverse the Caucasus and Türkiye over land.