Turkey is in talks with the United States and Russia in an attempt to get U.S. sanctions lifted so it can continue to pay Gazprombank for Russian natural gas imports, Reuters reported, citing Turkish authorities.

The U.S. imposed new sanctions on Russia's Gazprombank last week.

Turkey imports almost all the gas it needs and Russia is the main supplier, providing more than 50% of its pipeline imports, the media outlet emphasized.

Turkish Energy Minister Alparslan Bayraktar referred to a previous exemption granted to Ankara when Washington imposed sanctions on Iran, saying Turkey needs something similar when it comes to Gazprombank to secure supplies.

“These sanctions will affect Turkey. We can't pay and if we can't pay, we can't buy the goods. The Foreign Ministry is negotiating,” Bayraktar told reporters.

For his part, another Turkish official said representatives of the Turkish and Russian foreign, trade and finance ministries and central banks met on Monday to discuss U.S. actions and their impact on bilateral energy trade.

“We discussed with the Russian delegation what can be done to ensure that Turkey is not sanctioned during this process and what would be the consequences of this,” the official said.

He added that Turkey had started talks with its U.S. counterparts even before the sanctions on Gazprombank were announced, as Washington usually announces measures first before granting exemptions.

“They are working on the issue,” he said.