Kazakhstan, Astana, November 12 / Trend, A. Maratov /
Kazakhstan's Ambassador to Lithuania Galymjan Koyshibayev arrived in Lithuanian railway station Kena to attend the meeting ceremony of container train Saule that moves from China to European biggest port in Belgium's Antwerpen via the territory of Lithuania, the Kazakh Foreign Ministry reported today.
"The Saule train, the first of such kind, carrying 41 containers with computer software on a full-length 11,000-kilometer route departed from China's Chun Zin on October 28 to move via the territories of Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus toward Lithuania and onward to Belgium via Poland and Germany," the report reads.
The train reached Lithuania within a very short period of time - 13 days - after it moved from China via Kazakhstan, Russia, and Belarus, Koyshibayev said. His Chinese counterpart Tong Mingtao said the train Saule is the result of multiyear cooperation and that its arrival in Lithuania marks the beginning of a new era in the field of transportation as it is expected to improve achievements of the transport sectors of all countries concerned.
At the sidelines of Lithuanian President Dalya Gribauskaite's official visit to Kazakhstan in the early October 2011, the heads of the two states agreed to launch train Saule before the end of the year. The Saule train project promises to bring benefits not only economically as railway communication is one of ecologically cleanest kinds of transport. Implementation of the project is expected to provide further development of "the green" transport linking Europe to Asia.
Attending the meeting ceremony, on behalf of Lithuania, were Transport and Communications Minister Eligius Masulis, Senior Presidential Adviser Nerius Udrenas, members of the Parliament and Government of Lithuania, the management of joint-stock company Lithuanian Railways, representatives of close joint-stock company VPA Logistics (the train's operator), and representatives of diplomatic corps.