“Central Asian countries show great interest in BTK project”

Baku, Azerbaijan, Feb. 21

Trend:

Vienna hosted a meeting between Javid Gurbanov, chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC and Andreas Mattha, CEO of Austrian Federal Railways, the Azerbaijan Railways CJSC said in a message.

At the meeting, the sides discussed possibilities of transporting cargoes along the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway from China to Europe and vice versa.

Gurbanov provided detailed information on the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, the North-South and South-West transport corridors, in particular the BTK railway commissioned in October last year, and noted that this railway will connect Asia with Europe.

It was noted that during his speech at the BTK opening ceremony, President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev stressed that this railway will connect three countries and continents.

At the meeting, it was also noted that Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, China and India expressed interest in joining this project first of all. The Central Asian countries show great interest in the project, Gurbanov said.

The new BTK railway network facilitates connection of the Trans-European and Trans-Asian railway networks, direct access of cargo and passengers to Europe and Asia through Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey, Gurbanov noted, adding that the BTK railway serves to increase the transit potential of the countries of the region.

In turn, Andreas Mattha, CEO of Austrian Federal Railways, highly appreciated the work carried out in Azerbaijan on the expansion of transport and logistics capabilities of the country, on the commissioning of the BTK railway Oct. 30, 2017, as well as the opening of other international transport corridors.

An agreement was reached on further expansion of bilateral cooperation.