The Turkic Council delegation headed by the Deputy Secretary Generals, Mr. Gismet Gozalov and Mr. Mirvokhid Azimov and Uzbek delegation headed by Deputy Minister of Transport Mr. Abdusamad Muminov held meetings with Mr. Rahman Hummatov, Deputy Minister of Transport; Mr. Javad Gasimov, Deputy Chairman of Customs Committee; Mr. Emil Majidov, Adviser to the Minister of Economy; Mr. Rauf Veliyev, Chairman of Azerbaijan Caspian Shipping CJSC; Mr. Taleh Ziyadov, Director-General of Baku International Sea Trade Port and visited the Baku International Sea Trade Port in Alat.
This trilateral format meeting was organized with the aim to discuss the current issues in the field of transport cooperation among the Turkic Council Member States, particularly measures for the facilitation of transport operations across the Trans-Caspian Corridor.
At the meetings, the Turkic Council delegation reiterated the instructions of the Heads of the States of the Turkic Council during the last Informal Summit held on 31 March 2021 in a virtual format on accelerating the work carried out in this field within the Council, speeding up the negotiations to finalize the International Combined Freight Transport Agreement and providing uninterrupted and unimpeded connection to Europe through the Trans-Caspian East-West Middle Corridor.
Stressing the significance of transport and transit potential of the Member States, the delegation of the Turkic Council stated that the Secretariat’s objective is to establish efficient and new mechanisms to streamline transport operations in all modes with a special emphasis on bolstering transport linkages along the Trans-Caspian Corridor.
The Parties shared their views on creating favorable conditions and increasing the transportation of goods from the Member States through Azerbaijan across the Trans-Caspian corridor.
They also discussed the possibility of providing discounts on the prices of Ro-Ro fees across the Caspian Sea, provision of additional permits and reciprocal cancelation of fees for transit passes, minimization of road and other tolls across the corridor;
Azerbaijani side gave detailed information on the current situation and shared the latest activities started by the government of Azerbaijan in optimization of transport and transit procedures across the country. They also expressed readiness for the constructive negotiations with Turkic Council Member States in solving the challenging issues in this matter.
Moreover, the parties agreed to focus on the digitalization of the system of road transportation by introducing e-TIR and e-Permit systems among the Member countries.
The delegations also discussed the draft of the Azerbaijan-Uzbekistan Intergovernmental Agreement on International Road Transport and reached a mutual understanding with respect to its provisions.
