Syrian Energy Minister Mohammad al-Bashir and his Turkish counterpart, Alparslan Bayraktar, signed a joint cooperation agreement to develop and enhance cooperation in the energy sector, SANA reports.

“We are working to complete the procedures for connecting the 400 kilovolt (kV) line that will connect Turkey to Syria,” al-Bashir said at a press conference on Thursday. “We expect the electrical connection between Syria and Turkey to be operational by the end of the year.”

In turn, Bayraktar said that since last December, Syria has been working on reconstruction in all sectors, focusing efforts on the energy sector, indicating that Syria will be supplied with two million cubic meters of gas per day and 1,000 megawatts of electricity.