Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran to work out plan to increase shipping via North-South corridor's western route to 15 mln tonnes

MOSCOW. Oct 14 (Interfax) - Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran have agreed to set up a working group to draw up an action plan by the beginning of 2026 to develop the western route of the International North-South Transport Corridor, a statement adopted following a trilateral meeting on transport, energy and customs cooperation in Baku said.

Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk took part in the meeting from the Russian side. Azerbaijan was represented by Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, and Iran was represented by Minister of Roads and Urban Development Farzaneh Sadegh.

"The need to take steps to increase the volume of shipments via the International North-South Transport Corridor to 15 million tonnes and ensure continuous growth of freight flows was emphasized. The parties agreed to set up a working group to prepare an action plan within the next three months to implement the planned activities," the statement obtained from Overchuk's press service said.

The participants in the meeting reiterated "the importance of continuing efforts to develop the region's transit potential" as well as "the significance of expediting projects aimed at developing and diversifying transport links and, in the context, at ensuring the synchronized implementation of measures to expand infrastructure along the International North-South Transport Corridor in the respective territories of the countries."

Overchuk said in his speech at the trilateral meeting on Monday that in order to roll out the corridor's western route, railways of Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran were fine-tuning multimodal container service technologies, the application of discounts to infrastructure railroad rates, lifting infrastructural restrictions, and were discussing reverse logistics guarantees.

According to the statement, the participants in the meeting also agreed to form a special working group for road transport, which will be made up of representatives of the three countries' customs, border and transport authorities.

"The parties underscored the need to simplify border crossing procedures and digitalize transport, border and customs operations throughout the route," the statement said.

An agreement was also reached to continue discussions at the technical level on a project to connect the electrical grids of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia.

The North-South corridor links northern Europe with the Gulf and Indian Ocean states via Russia, Caucasus and Central Asia. The multimodal corridor was created under an agreement signed by Russia, Iran and India in 2000. The number of participants now stands at 12. The corridor has three main routes, namely, the western route going along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, the eastern route stretching along the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, and the trans-Caspian route extending across the Caspian Sea.