TEHRAN, Iran, June.16
Trend:
Iran and Turkmenistan trade is currently done via railway routes, said the spokesman of the Iran Customs Administration.
All countries that have a land border with Turkmenistan are facing monotonous policy that coming trucks that transport trade cargos and the entrance of passengers are fully halted, Rouhollah Latifi told Trend in an interview
"Turkmenistan has this view that Coronavirus infection would be prevented by a ban on the entry of citizens from other countries so it has closed its entrances on neighbor countries, this decision was made base on domestic authorities of Turkmenistan but some internal decisions affect relation with countries," he added.
"Iran did not have trade relations with Turkmenistan for several months, except for railway transportation in Sarakhs and even at some point this railway transportation fully stopped. At the moment Inche Boron border in Golestan Province, Sarakhs and Lotf Abad in Khorasan Razavi Province are active by railway, Coronavirus caused the volume of commodity transportation via railway to grow but transport via roads declined significantly," Latifi noted.
He went on to stress that it was expected that trade via road route would return to the previous levels by the inauguration of Friendship Bridge in Sarakhs border, but due to Turkmenistan decisions it did not happen and borders were closed for a long time.
"We are currently trading in Sarakhs and Lotfabad borders by this method , Bajgiran border has been closed since 2019 until now and there are no commercial relations, the trade is done by railway in Inche Boron and we expect Ashgabat decide to reopen the road route as well," Latifi stated.
"It is not possible to transit commodity to other countries via Turkmenistan by Iranian transportation companies, therefore Iran cooperating with other countries to launch two new corridors. Kyrgyzstan-Tajikistan-Afghanistan-Iran (KTAI) corridor and Iran-Afghanistan-Uzbekistan corridor are experimentally activated, in these corridors Afghan trucks could play important role in delivering Iran's cargos but until these routes are strengthened, Turkmenistan route is still the most economic route," he stressed.