Afghanistan joining TRACECA
By Laman Sadigova
TRACECA National Secretary in Azerbaijan Akif Mustafayev stated
on April 1 that Afghanistan is to join TRACECA.
In fact, Iran’s formal agreement on the accession of Afghanistan to
TRACECA has already been received.
Earlier TRACECA Secretary from Iran announced that his county had
no objections to Afghanistan’s becoming a member of the
organization.
This means gradually developing trends of trade and economic
development. Major traffic flows through a corridor formed on the
one side, in Western and Central Europe, and on the other - in
Central and South-East Asia.
The TRACECA program was launched at a conference in Brussels in May
1993.It brought together trade and transport ministers from the
original eight TRACECA countries. Nowadays the program includes 12
countries.
Afghanistan, along with Iran was admitted to TRACECA in 2005 at the
Fourth Conference of the intergovernmental commission. Iran
ratified the accession to the TRACECA and soon became an active
member of the organization. However, Afghanistan’s ratification
process was delayed and it took almost 10 years to be finished.
It must be noted that Azerbaijan’s geographic situation and its
role in the Great Silk route is of great importance, especially
considering the fact that there are all kinds of transports and
main roads (air, sea and automobile),all well developed in the
republic.
Currently, TRACECA member countries are Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Armenia, Moldova, Romania, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Iran.
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