(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, June 22. President of
Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev arrived on a state visit to Uzbekistan on
June 21, Trend reports.
During the visit, bilateral meetings were held, and a number of
important documents determining the further development of
relations between the two countries were signed.
Head of the International Relations Department at the Uzbek
University of World Economy and diplomacy Ulugbek Khasanov
commenting on the visit said that rather complex and extremely
turbulent modern international relations set the issues of creating
sustainable and resistant models of national economies as vital
ones, which was confirmed by the current Azerbaijani-Uzbek summit
in Tashkent city.
'The meeting of the presidents of two countries has shown a high
level of integration of regional economies in the South Caucasus,
where Azerbaijan plays the key role, and in Central Asia with a
similar position of Uzbekistan in the world economy, which also
confirms their strategic involvement in global logistics, and this,
of course, has become one of the central themes of the bilateral
dialogue,' Khasanov noted.
Besides, the expert said that, this geo-economic advantage of
Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan determines alternative possibilities for
maintaining the stable regional and global supply chains.
Khasanov noted that the logistics potential of the two countries
in the South Caucasus and Central and South Asia allows connecting
the North-South and East-West corridors with European
countries.
The above potential also enables to connect the north-west of
Russia through the ports of Astrakhan and Olya with the ports of
Iran, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan, and transiting goods
from the Pacific ports of China to Europe, the states of the
Persian Gulf, as well as Pakistan and India.
'In the current difficult international political conditions,
the routes of mainland international transport flows provide direct
communication between Northern, Western, Central and Southern
Europe and the countries of the Caucasus, Transcaucasia, the Black
Sea and Caspian regions, the Middle East, Central Asia and parts of
the Asia-Pacific region, including the Northeast Asia region,”
Khasanov noted.
“Both Europe and China are strategically interested in the
participation of the countries of the South Caucasus and Central
Asia in development of the pan-Eurasian transport network in
general and in the program for the revival of the Great Silk Road,
especially due to the connection of the latter with the factors of
trade and energy supply,” he noted.
He also said that many Turkish companies, being extremely
interested in joining the Eurasian transport cargo flows, carried
out reconstruction of the 44-kilometer section of Azerbaijan's
Alat-Gazimammad highway (80 kilometers south of Baku), as well as
several sections of the Azerbaijani railways being part of the
Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor.
'Azerbaijan took real steps back in the 1990s to implement a
transport project together with Georgia and Türkiye to create the
shortest railway route on the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku line.
In the new conditions, Azerbaijan is working out a transport
corridor which will link the Lesser Caucasus in the northeast with
the Anatolian Highlands in the southwest,' Khasanov said.
'This is about the Zangazur corridor which will connect
Azerbaijan with Türkiye through Armenia. The workout of the
corridor testifies to the business potential of similar projects
offered by Azerbaijani diplomats,' the expert explained.
He said Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China are actively working on
the implementation of a joint project to build a road connecting
the Ferghana Valley with the western provinces of China.
The above transport route, passing through the cities of
Tashkent-Andijan-Osh-Irkeshtam-Kashgar along four alternative
branches, will not only connect the transport railway routes of
Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and China, but will also become the main
segment of the Great Silk Road project.
'This railway route is the shortest route from China to Europe
and the Middle East. With the commissioning of this railway, the
distance will be reduced by 900 kilometers compared to existing
routes, and the delivery time of goods will be reduced by seven to
eight days,” he said.
“China is actively involved in implementation of this project,
which launched a Xi'an-Bishkek direct freight rail route on July
17, 2019. The opening of regional hubs in Uzbekistan has already
made serious changes in the development of new models of
international transportation, where the Trans-Afghan corridor is of
great importance.'
Summing up, Khasanov noted that namely the above priorities of
the regional and global agenda will prevail in the bilateral
relations between Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan for long years.
In turn, director of the Uzbek Development Strategy Center Eldor
Tulyakov noted that bilateral and multilateral cooperation between
Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan has been developing dynamically for more
than 30 years.
'A high strategic level of cooperation has been achieved thanks
to close dialogue and mutual understanding between the presidents
of the two countries. Over the past five years, trade between
Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan has grown almost by seven times: from
$17.1 million in 2016 to $118.9 million in 2021,” Tulyakov
said.
“According to the State Statistics Committee of Uzbekistan, in
2021, the volume of bilateral trade with Azerbaijan amounted to
$118.9 million, an increase of 42 percent compared to 2020,' he
noted. 'At the same time, from January through May 2022, the volume
of trade between the countries amounted to $66.4 million and
increased by 49.1 percent compared to the same period in 2021.”
“Azerbaijan is one of the few countries with which Uzbekistan
has a positive trade balance. In 2021, this figure amounted to $33
million,' Tulyakov emphasized.
Moreover, according to him, Azerbaijan is an important country
through which the main transport routes to Türkiye and other
European countries (railway and road) pass, which should be further
expanded.
'For example, already a railway corridor has been launched - the
foreign trade route of Uzbekistan in the western direction, which
connects its Tashkent and Kungrad cities with Beyneu and Aktau
(Kazakhstan), Azerbaijan's Baku, Georgian Tbilisi and Poti, and
European countries,' Tulyakov said. 'Besides, there's the AH5
(International Asian Network) road corridor connecting China with
Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan,
Azerbaijan-Georgia-Türkiye-Bulgaria.'
He also spoke about the launch of E60 (European direction) road
corridor connecting France with Switzerland, Austria, Germany,
Hungary, Romania, Georgia-Azerbaijan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan,
Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan and China.
“At the same time, Uzbekistan and its western partners -
Türkiye, Azerbaijan, Georgia and others are interested in promoting
the multimodal transport corridor of Asia-Pacific
region-China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Türkiye-Europe,
passing through the territory of China, the countries of Central
Asia, the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus, Türkiye and the countries of
Europe,' he said.
Tulyakov pointed out that implementation of the multimodal
transport corridor will reduce the time of movement of goods from
the Central Asian countries by three times.
'Moreover, the implementation of this multimodal transport
corridor through Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan will allow our countries
significantly increase their foreign trade turnover, and can also
significantly increase the volume of transit cargo through their
territory. In Uzbekistan, the volume of transit cargo
transportation can increase from the current nearly 10 million tons
to 23 million tons in 2030,' the expert said.
According to him, in the current crisis conditions and against
the backdrop of challenges in the field of food security, it
becomes necessary to diversify transport routes connecting Central
Asia with the East and West through the Caspian Sea, the Caucasus
and further - to Europe.
'In this regard, both railway and road transport corridors, the
development of transport infrastructure, implementation of common
transport projects are becoming important areas of cooperation for
many countries, including Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan,' Tulyakov
said.
According to the expert, the current visit of Azerbaijani
President Ilham Aliyev to Uzbekistan will give a new impetus to the
development of bilateral and multilateral relations between the two
countries, and expand opportunities for promoting close
dialogue.
At the same time, he said that further deepening of trade and
economic cooperation, the development of transport and
communication links and infrastructure, as well as the expansion of
industrial and transit cooperation, become the most relevant
issues.
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