Baku, Azerbaijan, Oct. 17
By Gulgiz Muradova - Trend:
Polish Foreign Minister Witold Waszczykowski said Poland sees Azerbaijan as its close partner in the transport sector.
Waszczykowski, talking to Trend ahead of his Baku visit, reminded that Azerbaijan, situated at the crossroads of great trade routes, has got a centuries-long tradition, adding that much the same as Poland.
Poland is one of the few countries in Europe to have a few hundred kilometres of wide-gauge railroad, which allows to transport goods into our country and the rest of Europe from the CIS area, he added.
“We also have a great experience and potential to distribute those goods to other EU countries. Poland and Azerbaijan must use this opportunity to realize the projects to establish a West-South and West-East transport corridors,” the FM said.
Waszczykowski noted that they relate not only to transport but also provide tangible results of successful economic cooperation within the Eastern Partnership.
As for the West-South corridor, the FM said that Poland already cooperates with Azerbaijan but also other EaP countries – Ukraine and Georgia.
“We promote the idea on the EU level as well, because – in our opinion – it goes in line with European plans to develop Trans-European Transport Network (TNT),” he said.
Along with the Trans-Caspian and North-South corridors, the South-West corridor is of great importance for Azerbaijan. The South-West corridor is supposed to run from India to Europe through the Persian Gulf, Iran, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and the Black Sea. At an initial stage, it is planned to transport 10 million tons of cargo via this route with the possibility of increasing the transportation volume by several times in the future.
An agreement on the South-West corridor was signed in 2016 by Azerbaijan, Georgia, Iran, and Ukraine in Baku. The corridor will make it possible to slash the time of cargo transportation from India to Europe by two or three times.
The trans-European transport network (TEN-T) is a network which comprises roads, railway lines, inland waterways, inland and maritime ports, airports and rail-road terminals throughout the 28 Member States.
Under the proposal, the TEN-T network will consist of two layers: a core network to be completed by 2030 and a comprehensive network feeding into this, to be completed by 2050, ensuring full coverage of the EU and accessibility of all regions.
