These soundings by Erdogan about international loans denominated in gold, coupled with the context of a ‘diplomatic crisis‘ between Turkey and the USA which precipitated the gold repatriation by Turkey away from the NY Fed, both underscore the extreme importance with which nation states regard physical gold as a strategic metal, and the lengths to which nation states such as Russia and Turkey will go to protect their interests against what they perceive as political risks from storing the yellow metal in locations where it might be seized or commandeered.