ANKARA: As the long-awaited meeting between Turkish and Israeli presidents approaches, Ankara has emphasized its willingness to boost energy cooperation with Tel Aviv as Washington loses interest in the controversial EastMed pipeline project that would carry Israeli gas to Europe through Cyprus and Greece.  

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Friday that the two countries could work on transporting natural gas from Israel to Europe, while at the same time searching for new avenues of energy cooperation during talks scheduled for mid-March.