Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan launch Caspian Sea fiber-optic cable

BAKU. Oct 15 (Interfax) - Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev on Thursday officially launched a fiber-optic cable laid across the Caspian seabed, according to a statement on the Azerbaijani president's website.

The two leaders launched the Trans-Caspian cable online. It runs about 380 kilometers between Sumgait in Azerbaijan and Aktau in Kazakhstan and has a capacity of more than 400 terabits per second.

The project, carried out under the Digital Silk Way initiative, creates new opportunities for digital cooperation between Asia and Europe, the statement said.

"With the cable in operation, the strategic importance of the Middle Corridor [the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, TITR] will grow in digital as well as transport terms," it said. "The new route will carry data from China and Central Asia through Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan and Georgia, and then across the Black Sea or through Turkey to Europe. This will expand international data exchange and make digital communications more resilient."

The cable also helps attract investment and develop data centers for artificial intelligence, cloud services and computing capacity.

"This is certainly a very important project that will draw international attention," Tokayev said. "But most important, it is a new kind of corridor. It is not just a transport corridor. It is an innovation that suits our era, the era of digitalization, and a completely new kind of cooperation."

Aliyev said the project is another step toward closer cooperation between Central Asia and Azerbaijan. "It is another contribution to strengthening cooperation, because the countries of Central Asia, the South Caucasus and a wider area will use this cable," he said. "So today we have launched a global project."

The leaders also witnessed the exchange of two signed documents: a cooperation agreement on developing the TITR and a certificate confirming the acquisition of two dry-cargo ships between the AZCON holding and Samruk-Kazyna.

Cable laying began in July 2026. CaspiLink B.V., a joint venture of Kazakhtelecom and AzerTelecom International, is responsible for building and operating the line. The operators are paying for the project themselves, without budget funding.

The cable is part of the Digital Silk Way megaproject, which plans a digital telecommunications corridor through Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The Aktau-Sumgait route will link the digital infrastructure of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan and form a direct high-speed data corridor between Asia and Europe.