A
trilateral meeting
was held in Tbilisi yesterday during which railway authorities of Azerbaijan, Georgia andIran discussed cargo transportation within the region.
The railway authorities were represented by Chairman of Azerbaijan Railways CJSC Javid Gurbanov, the CEO of Georgian Railways Mamuka Bakhtadze and Chairman of the Board and President of Iran Railways Saeed Mohammadzadeh
During the meeting, the railway heads discussed the prospects of increasing cargo delivery from the countries of the Persian Gulf and India to Europe and vice versa.
Specifically, the three parties discussed the organizing of cargo transportation from the Persian Gulf region and India into Europe through Azerbaijan and Georgia.
The purpose is to make transportation faster and to lower tariffs.
“We have considered traffic from the Persian Gulf and India (through Azerbaijan and Georgia) to Europe and back. It should be noted that freight transportation needs 30-40 days now. However, the offered route might reduce the time”, a
n official statement
says.
Railway authorities have agreed to create a working group in order to organize the transportation of cargo from the Persian Gulf region and India to Europe and in the opposite direction, in addition to organizing the movement of container trains on the Poti/Batumi – Astara – Poti/Batumi route, and in the future – on the route Gazvin – Tehran/Bandar-Abbas – Gazvin.
According to the official statement released on the website of the Azerbaijani railways’, the three sides have signed a trilateral protocol and have decided to continue meeting on a regular basis.
