Iran signs document on railways of particular importance
By Abdul Kerimkhanov
Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan and Turkey signed a document on cooperation along the railway corridor, which will connect China with Turkey and Europe.
During his recent visit to Ankara, Deputy Minister for Roads and Urban Development, Chairman of the Board and President of Iranian Railways Saeid Rasouli, said: “For the first time a joint rail corridor between Iran and the four countries of the region will transport Chinese container cargo to Europe.”
He noted that the transit of goods through five project participants will depend on the same and fully competitive tariff rates.
Expressing optimism about the boom in the transport industry after the commissioning of the railway, Rasouli said that the transit route from China to Europe has a very large capacity for transporting containers.
Rasouli believes, when the railway corridor receives a share of the supply of goods from China to Europe, this will definitely help the prosperity of the railway networks in Iran and neighboring countries.
He further informed that the participants in the meeting agreed to transport container cargo from China to Turkey and from there to Europe via this corridor.
Rasouli described the event as an important and a new chapter in transport relations between the two countries and said it would promote economic cooperation and prosperity in the countries along the route.
Iran plans to become a transportation hub in the heart of Eurasia, where regional countries have developed their own development strategies. The country’s railway sector has become a magnet for railway and rolling stock enterprises from around the world.
Diplomatic relations between Iran and China were established on August 16, 1971.
The volume of Iranian-Chinese trade reached a historically high value of $19.66 billion in January-July 2019.
China has repeatedly stressed that the country will maintain a high level of bilateral relations with Iran, regardless of the position of third countries.
In turn, Iran last year significantly eased visa rules for China, increased the volume of energy exports and began to show interest in various multilateral economic formats in Asia with Chinese participation.
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Abdul Kerimkhanov is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow him on Twitter: @AbdulKerim94
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