BAKU, Azerbaijan, August 18. Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian will hold discussions on the North-South International Transport Corridor during his visit to Armenia, Trend reports.
Speaking in Tehran ahead of his trip, Pezeshkian mentioned that the corridor could pave the way for fresh avenues in fostering cooperation between Iran and Armenia.
He added that the East-West route could also serve as suitable infrastructure to simplify and enhance regional trade. Pezeshkian highlighted Iran’s concern over the presence of U.S. companies in the region, noting that some have previously taken unexpected and undesirable actions under the guise of commercial activities, which will be addressed in the talks.
The creation of the North-South transport corridor was based on an intergovernmental agreement between Russia, Iran, and India dated September 12, 2000. In total, this agreement was ratified by several countries (the Republic of Azerbaijan, the Republic of Belarus, the Republic of Bulgaria, India, the Islamic Republic of Iran, the Republic of Kazakhstan, the Kyrgyz Republic, the Sultanate of Oman, the Russian Federation, the Republic of Tajikistan, the Republic of Türkiye, and Ukraine). The purpose of creating the corridor is to reduce the delivery time of goods from India to Russia, as well as to Northern and Western Europe (the delivery time along the current route is more than 6 weeks, while the North-South route is expected to take 3 weeks).
On March 6, 2019, the Qazvin-Rasht railway (175 km) was put into operation as part of the corridor, connecting the Azerbaijani railways with the Iranian railway network. The Rasht-Astara railway is to be built on Iranian territory.
The North-South Corridor has three directions across Iranian territory. The eastern direction is Turkmenistan and the countries of Central Asia, the middle direction is Russia and other countries across the Caspian Sea, and the western direction is Azerbaijan, Georgia, Russia, and the countries of Eastern Europe.
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