Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

Azerbaijan and Lithuania will expand cooperation in transport sector, as the two sides have inked an agreement on cargo transition.

The document was undersigned between Azad Gasimov, Director of the ADY Ekspress, engaged in multimodal cargo transportation in Azerbaijan, and General Director of the Lithuanian Railways, Stasys Dailydka in Vilnius

The agreement envisages creation of a regulatory framework, defines the obligations, rules for granting discounts and mutual payments for cargo transportation between the two countries.

“The agreement creates the conditions for the expansion of opportunities for cooperation in transport, and increase the volume of transit cargo between two countries” Head of the Press Service of the Azerbaijan Railways Nadir Azmammadov said.

Deputy Director General of Lithuanian Railways Stasys Gudvalis and Deputy Chairman of the Azerbaijan Railways Igbal Huseynov also attended the event.

The meeting further discussed Azerbaijan's participation in the Viking transportation project, initiated by Lithuania, as well as the perspectives in increasing the volume of freight traffic in the project.

Earlier, Lithuania’s ambassador in Baku, Valdas Lastauskas said that Lithuania and Azerbaijan enjoy big opportunities for development of railway transit connecting east and west, north and south. Further development of railway transit coincides with the interests of both countries.

The participation of Azerbaijan Railways in the Viking project will make it possible to extend the container train route to more distant Asian countries, an alternative route to reach Kazakhstan and China. It is expected that once Azerbaijan Railways joins the project, more freight will be transported to the Baltic region from Kazakhstan and China, and the new Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway will be used to transport containers from Turkey to Ukrainian ports.

Combined transport train Viking started running in 2003. Participants in the project are Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, and in 2012 Bulgaria joined the project. The total length of the route Ilyichevsk (Ukraine) - Minsk (Belarus) - Draugyste (Lithuania) is 1,766 kilometers.

In 2015, "Ukrainian Railways" announced the possibility of freight train from China to Europe by Viking. The protocol was signed during a meeting of heads of railways of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Ukraine on the formation of competitive tariff conditions for transportation of goods through Asia - Europe - Asia.

This February, Ukraine and Lithuania signed a memorandum on the accession of the container train to the Trans-Caspian international transport corridor from Europe through Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to China.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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