ANKARA, April 3 (Xinhua) -- The groundbreaking ceremony of Turkey's first nuclear power plant, Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant, was held Tuesday with the participation of Turkish and Russian presidents via video teleconference from capital Ankara.
During the video teleconference, Russian President Vladimir Putin said "The successful implementation of the Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant will be a symbol of the dynamic development of Turkish-Russian partnership."
The Akkuyu Nuclear Power Plant in Turkey's southern Mersin province will be built with an estimated cost of 20 billion U.S. dollars and is due to be launched in 2023.
The construction of Akkuyu project, which was signed with Russia's State Atomic Energy Corporation(Rosatom) in 2010, was halted in 2015 when Turkey downed a Russian warplane near the Syrian border plunging bilateral ties into a crisis.