BAKU, Azerbaijan, September 8
By Jeila Aliyeva - Trend:
The potential for regional cooperation and development of Black Sea - Caspian Sea international transportation route project is tremendous, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Romania told Trend.
The route aims to create an intermodal, sea/river and road/rail transport route between Central and Northern Europe and the Southern Caucasus and Central Asia, added the ministry.
“This project was based on a bilateral Romanian-Turkmen initiative with Turkmenbashi International Seaport - the main bridge pillar at one end, and Constanta seaport - its correspondent, 2,500 km westwards,” noted the ministry.
The Black Sea - Caspian Sea international transportation route is promoted in a four-party format that brings together Romania, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
“On the 4th of April 2019, the ministers of foreign affairs of Romania, Turkmenistan, Georgia and Azerbaijan signed the Bucharest Political Statement expressing the commitment of the four countries to join forces in promoting this project,” said the ministry.
The ministry pointed out that the potential of this project was reaffirmed during a bilateral Romanian – Turkmen meeting, held via videoconference, hosted by the Constanta Port Administration on July 15th, with the participation of representatives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Transport, Infrastructure and Communication and the Constanta Port Business Association.
“The relevance of such regional connectivity projects transcend by far the interest of the country or countries directly involved,” said the ministry.
Connectivity is high on the EU agenda, as reflected by the EU Strategy on connecting Europe and Asia and the new EU Strategy on Central Asia, the latter being adopted during the Romanian Presidency of the European Council in the first semester of 2019, the Romanian MFA said.
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