Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe Wednesday said his country wanted to cooperate with Turkey on the construction of the second nuclear plant to be built in Northern Province of Sinop. Not only nuclear, they wanted to cooperate on topics such as infrastructure works, space and health Abe pointed out in an exclusive interview with Cihan. The Japanese prime minister is due in Turkey on May 2 to meet with his Turkish counterpart, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Energy Minister Taner Yıldız said on Monday that Ankara will declare by the weekend which country will construct its $22 billion second nuclear power station, an announcement that will coincide with Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's visit to the Turkish capital.
Yıldız's statements add to earlier speculation that Ankara had chosen a consortium headed by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and France's Areva to build the plant, which is predicted to have a capacity of around 4,500-5,000 megawatts (MW), in the Black Sea province of Sinop. "We are about to finalize the agreement for the construction of the second power plant. China and Japan are the frontrunners," Yıldız told reporters on Monday. Apart from China and Japan, Turkey had also been in talks with companies from Canada and South Korea on the planned Sinop plant.