Erdogan applauds Turkey's admission to the nuclear club

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has announced his country's entry into the ranks of nuclear-powered nations, after the first delivery of fuel to the Akkuyu power plant on Thursday. The facility is Turkey's largest joint project with Russia, and will supply 10% of the country's energy needs by 2028. Construction on the Akkuyu project began in 2018, with work carried out by a subsidiary of Russia's state nuclear energy firm, Rosatom. Putin praised Erdogan for paying "great attention to the expansion of Russian-Turkish relations," and the two leaders also held a phone conversation in which they discussed the Ukraine conflict, the grain deal between Moscow and Kiev, and other regional issues.