The Baku Declaration on the development of the International North–South Transport Corridor was signed following the first trilateral meeting between Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran, the TASS correspondent reported on Friday.
In the document signed by the Deputy Prime Minister of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev, Deputy Prime Minister of Russia Alexei Novak and Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rustam Ghasemi, the parties agreed to intensify joint efforts to develop the North-South Transport Corridor. In particular, "the importance of future discussions related to completing the construction and commissioning of the Resht (Iran) - Astara (Iran) railway branch" is emphasized. A draft agreement on the construction of this branch will be prepared within a month, and direct negotiations on its launch are scheduled to begin before the end of 2022.
"The parties confirm their intentions to facilitate border crossing procedures and expand cooperation between the relevant authorities of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran in this direction. In addition, the parties will make efforts to unblock all economic and transport ties in the region, including by creating new communications," the document said.
Earlier on Friday Baku hosted the first trilateral meeting on development of the International North–South Transport Corridori. The intergovernmental agreement on establishment of the North-South multimodal transport corridor was signed by Russia, India and Iran in 2000. Later the number of participants expanded to 14. The aim of the project is to attract transit cargo flows from India, Iran and the Persian Gulf through Russian territory to Europe (compared with the sea route through the Suez Canal the distance is reduced by more than half, which reduces the time and cost of transportation). Now the project combines several different transport systems of individual states. India has invested about $2.1 billion in it, part of it in the construction of transport infrastructure in Iran.
GSV "Russia - Islamic World"
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Based on materials from TASS