(MENAFN- Trend News Agency)
BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 12. The signing of
the Baku Declaration following the results of the first trilateral
meeting between the official representatives of Azerbaijan, Russia
and Iran on the development of the international North-South
Transport Corridor on September 9 is of great importance in terms
of further increasing transport capabilities of Azerbaijan,
Trend reports.
According to the declaration signed by Azerbaijani Deputy Prime
Minister Shahin Mustafayev, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander
Novak, and Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam
Ghasemi, the parties expressed their readiness to cooperate in
assessment, as well as analysis of infrastructure and transport
opportunities to fully use the potential of the North-South
Transport Corridor and take into account the proposed goal of
transporting 30 million tons of goods, including transit, between
Azerbaijan, Russian and Iran by 2030.
Purpose of construction of North-South Transport
Corridor
Azerbaijan joined the project of this transport corridor, which
was founded by an intergovernmental agreement between Russia, Iran
and India, signed on September 12, 2000, in 2005. The corridor is
being built to speed up the process of delivery of goods
transported from India to Russia, as well as to Northern and
Western Europe.
As part of the construction of the transport corridor,
Azerbaijan aims to create an infrastructure that meets modern
standards. For this, new roads and bridges are being built. The
mentioned agreement was ratified by Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bulgaria,
Armenia, India, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Oman, Russia,
Tajikistan, Türkiye, and Ukraine.
Deputy Minister of Digital Development and Transport of
Azerbaijan Rahman Hummatov, speaking at an event dedicated to the
prospects for the development of the North-South Transport
Corridor, said that along the North-South corridor, the
transportation of goods per year is 500,000 million tons, and in
the future it's planned to increase this figure to four million
tons. By rail, in the medium term, the volume of cargo flow is
planned to be increased to six million tons, and in the long term -
up to 20 million tons.
Azerbaijan in the center of the international transport
corridor
With the growing international attention to the North-South and
East-West transport corridors passing through the territory of
Azerbaijan, and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway line, cargo
transportation through the territory of the country significantly
increases annually. Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev noted
at a trilateral meeting in Baku that from January through August
this year, transit cargo transportation through Azerbaijan
increased by 47 percent compared to the same period last year. In
just six months of this year, the volume of transit traffic
increased by more than 50 percent.
On August 26, Azerbaijani Prime Minister Ali Asadov, speaking as
a guest at a meeting of the Eurasian Intergovernmental Council in
Cholpon-Ata, Kyrgyzstan, noted that the volume of transit traffic
through the new international sea trade port of Alat in the Caspian
Sea is increasing.
Asadov stressed that the port's infrastructure allows handling
up to 15 million tons of cargo, including 100,000 TEU containers
per year. However, the growth in freight traffic and the associated
forecasts require an increase in its capacity. Taking this into
account, the foundation was laid for the second phase to expand the
port's throughput capacity to 25 million tons of cargo and 500,000
TEU containers.
Due to the increase in the volume of traffic, design work is
currently underway at the Baku International Sea Trade Port as part
of the second phase. Upon completion of the project, the port's
throughput will be increased to 25 million tons.
Reasons for attractiveness of Azerbaijan in terms of
international cargo transportation
1. One of the main goals of transnational companies is the safe
delivery of their products to the consumer. The geopolitical
situation in the world is such that most countries cannot give
companies security guarantees. In this issue, the position of
transnational companies in relation to Azerbaijan is completely
different.
Large corporations fully trust the security guarantees provided
by Azerbaijan. Because the country, against the backdrop of
political upheavals, wars and revolutions taking place in the
world, was able to maintain the status of the most stable state in
the region. This makes Azerbaijan an attractive state for
transnational transport companies.
2. Transit traffic through Azerbaijan, located at the
intersection of the North-South and East-West transport corridors,
is very beneficial in terms of distance and time of cargo
transportation between the EU countries and China, India and other
eastern countries.
3. Besides, the attention of transnational companies is
attracted by the high-quality transport infrastructure of
Azerbaijan - a network of railways and roads that meets modern
standards. In particular, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the Baku
International Sea Trade Port, Azerbaijan's largest merchant fleet
in the Caspian Sea, and a modern shipbuilding plant further
increase the transport capabilities of the country. Azerbaijan also
completed the construction of a number of roads, airports and other
infrastructure facilities in a short time, which will become part
of the Zangazur corridor.
4. Azerbaijan's victory in the 2020 second Karabakh war created
new reality both in the South Caucasus region and in the
geopolitical panorama of the world. The implementation of the
Zangazur Corridor project will significantly increase the transit
capabilities of the country. The Zangazur corridor creates
additional opportunities for the transit of five-eight million tons
of cargo through Azerbaijan.
Moreover, the 3+3 format can lead to the creation of a new
transport hub in the region. Naturally, Azerbaijan is the main
participant in the transport network that is planned to be created
between the countries of the region. This is due to the country's
location in the center of this transport network and bordering on
all states included in the 3+3 format.
5. With the outbreak of armed conflict in Ukraine on February
24, 2022, the world entered a new geopolitical and economic era.
Tough sanctions of European states and the US against Russia lead
to a fundamental change in the transport map of the world. This is
due to the fact that the states with large economies, such as
China, Japan and South Korea, located in the east and having
extensive trade relations with Europe, carried out cargo
transportation to the West mainly from the territory of Russia.
However the sanctions imposed on Russia have drastically reduced
cargo transportation across it.
Most companies aren't interested in transporting goods through
Russia, as they want to avoid Western sanctions. Both Western and
Eastern companies are forced to look for new, alternative routes
for intensive and safe cargo transportation.
The northern corridor passing through Russia is practically
closed for well-known reasons. The southern corridor, most of which
runs through Afghanistan, Iran, Syria and Iraq, is dangerous, and
the fact that Afghanistan, Syria and Iraq are the main field for
terrorist groups, as well as the sanctions imposed by the West on
Iran, deter companies from using this corridor.
As the Northern and Southern Corridors lose their effectiveness,
the importance of the Middle Corridor, where Azerbaijan is located,
becomes more important. The corridor from China to Europe through
Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and
Türkiye, as well as the Black Sea attracts the attention of
multinational companies with its stability and reliability.
The peace talks between Azerbaijan and Armenia that began after
the second Karabakh war, and the discussions of opening transport
lines passing through the region, inspire even greater hopes for
the future of the Middle Corridor. This increases the interest of
international players in Azerbaijan.
Speaking at various international economic forums and
conferences, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev stated that
programs to diversify the economy are being implemented in the
country. Naturally, the increase in Azerbaijan's transport
capabilities is very important in terms of diversifying the
country's economy, and is a great contribution to the economy.
The processes show that under the leadership of President Ilham
Aliyev, Azerbaijan manages to attract the attention of the world's
leading companies, along with the oil and gas sector, and in
connection with transport corridors, to receive economic and
political dividends from the geopolitical processes taking place
both in the South Caucasus region and in the world.
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