Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Russia intend to develop an international multimodal transport corridor Russia - Caspian Sea - Turkmenistan - Uzbekistan - Kyrgyzstan, the press service of Uzbekistan's Transport Ministry reported on Wednesday.
The memorandum was signed during the Transport Forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states, which convened in Tashkent on Wednesday.Ilkhom Makhkamov, Minister of Transport of Uzbekistan, Dmitry Zverev, Deputy Minister of Transport of Russia, and Tilek Tekebaev, Minister of Transport and Communications of Kyrgyzstan, signed the memorandum during the Transport Forum of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) member states.
In January of this year, representatives from Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Russia met in Astrakhan to discuss potentially establishing an international multimodal corridor. The proposed corridor would originate in Kyrgyzstan, pass through the territories of Uzbekistan Turkmenistan, and then reach Russia through the international port of Turkmenbashi.
During the meeting, the Turkmen side expressed the willingness of the Turkmen counterpart to cooperate, in particular, to offer favourable tariffs in the International Sea Port of Turkmenbashi and involve its shipyards in the work to increase the volume of cargo traffic on the route Astrakhan - Turkmenbashi.
In a collaborative effort, Turkmenistan and the Astrakhan region of Russia reached an agreement last year regarding the construction of Turkmenistan's logistics centre at the port of Olya. Currently, plans are underway to develop the construction blueprint for the port.