Baku, Azerbaijan, Jan. 17
By Azad Hasanli - Trend:
The Trans-Caspian international transport corridor is of strategic importance for Ukraine, Vadim Sidyachenko, the head of the economic department of the embassy of Ukraine in Azerbaijan, said in an interview with AZERNEWS.
"When Russia has banned transportation of Ukrainian goods through their country, the Trans-Caspian corridor is becoming strategic for Ukraine," Sidyachenko said.
"The embassy of Ukraine is closely cooperating with all transportation structures of Azerbaijan, in particular, the Azerbaijan Railways and the Coordinating Council for Transit Cargo," he said. "We applause a good decision to establish the Coordinating Council, because it became a single window through which we can solve transit issues and we have already solved certain issues on tariffs and transportation."
Sidyachenko said that the embassy informed the Ukrainian government about this experience to create a similar structure in Ukraine.
He said that the establishment of such a council, which coordinates the activity of the rail and maritime transport, is a significant political and economic decision.
"We are maintaining the ideas on the development of the Baku Sea Trade Port as a transport hub of the Caspian and the Caucasus regions," he said. "We have already brought Ukrainian shipping transport companies so they were acquainted with the work of the port and hauled loads in this direction."
Ukraine offers shippers to use the Trans-Caspian international transport route for the transportation of goods to Central Asia bypassing Russia. In this regard, a container train will be launched from Illichivsk, Ukraine on Jan. 15 for a test journey through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan to China, across the Caspian and Black seas.
The test train was launched after Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine signed a protocol on setting competitive preferential tariffs for cargo transportation via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.
The Trans-Caspian international transport route runs through China, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey and then to Europe. The first test container train arrived in the Baku International Sea Trade Port from China via this route in early August.