Foreign Minister of Romania Luminica Odobescu met with Azerbaijani Foreign Minister Jeyhun Bayramov, who was on an official visit to Bucharest on Monday. During the meeting, Minister Odobescu emphasised the significance of addressing the early operationalisation of the Black Sea-Caspian Sea international transport route.
According to Minister Luminica Odobescu, the initiative discussed during the meeting will attract new cargo flows from the South Caucasus, Central Asia, and the Asia-Pacific region. This development has the potential to transform the ports located on the Black and Caspian Seas into significant transit hubs along the East-West axis, Verdica reports.
On 4 March 2019, a quadripartite meeting of the foreign ministers of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania and Turkmenistan was held in Bucharest to strengthen and intensify economic cooperation between these states.
The negotiations resulted in the signing of a Declaration (Bucharest Declaration) as an expression of their joint commitment to the development of a freight transport route between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and the early implementation of the project.
The Black Sea-Caspian Sea International Transport Route is a project launched by Romania and Turkmenistan in 2012 aimed at creating an intermodal transport route (sea/river and road/rail) between Central and Northern Europe, the South Caucasus and Central Asia/Asia-Pacific, utilising the geographical connectivity of Romania, Georgia, Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan.