Russia counts on Azerbaijan joining North-South corridor project

Moscow counts on Azerbaijan's early accession to the Russian-Iranian agreements on the creation of the North-South transport corridor, Russian President Vladimir Putin said.

He made the remarks, speaking at the plenary session of the second Eurasian Economic Forum on Amy 24, TASS reports.

He recalled that on May 17 an agreement was signed between Russia and Iran on laying a section of the Rasht-Astara railway.

"This will make it possible to connect Russian ports in the Baltic and Northern seas with Iranian ports on the coast of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. The construction of a new branch will begin this year," Putin said.

The president noted that interaction in the context of the creation of this corridor is carried out in close partnership with Azerbaijan.

“We look forward to the soonest completion of the preparation and signing of relevant documents in a trilateral format with the participation of the Azerbaijani side. Namely, agreements on cooperation in the development of railway infrastructure and freight traffic along the North-South route,” Putin said.

He added that the full launch of this route will ensure the annual transit of up to 30 million tons of cargo.

"This railway will be able to successfully compete for cargo flows with traditional trade routes and will contribute to the emergence of new regional transport and production centres throughout the Eurasian space. And these are tens of thousands of jobs, additional opportunities for the development of all EAEU member countries," Putin said.

To recap, in 2000, Russia, India, and Iran signed an intergovernmental agreement to create a multimodal transport corridor North-South for the purpose of promoting transportation cooperation among the Member States. The number of participants in the project later increased to 14.