Turkey expects to sign an international agreement with the European Union about the Nabucco gas pipeline project in mid-July, the country's Minister for E.U. Affairs said Thursday.
"Turkey is a natural route between the energy resources and the energy demands," Turkey's Minister for E.U. Affairs Egemen Bagis told a breakfast meeting in Brussels.
The European Commission and the E.U. countries involved in the 3,300-kilometer-long pipeline project have long been negotiating with Ankara to reach an agreement on the transit of gas through Turkey.
Nabucco is intended to bring gas from the Caucasus and Central Asia to Europe, easing the E.U.'s dependence on Russian supplies.
Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan earlier this year suggested Turkey might pull out of the Nabucco project if its membership talks with the E.U. remain stalled. Since then, Erdogan has said he supports the planned pipeline.