Iran plays major part in 13-nation Traceca railway alliance

EghtesadOnline: Iran plays major part in the 13-nation railway alliance of Traceca, Secretary General of Traceca Mr. Mircea Ciopraga said on Monday.

News ID: ۷۶۹۱۱۱

30 August 2016

He made the remarks n meeting with Managing Director of Islamic Republic of Iran Railway Company Mohsen Pour-Seyed Aqaei, according to IRNA.

International Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) has been introduced as a route with less expense and time to connect Central Asian Republics to world markets and European ports.

Members of Traceca are Bulgaria, Ukraine, Romania, Moldova and Turkey on Black Sea coast and Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan Republic in Caucasus region, Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia.

Ciopraga said that the most important point in this concern is to decrease time for transporting goods in this corridor.

Five countries have declared their readiness to implement the plan and Azerbaijan Republic, Armenia, Georgia, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan have signed an agreement in this concern and Ukraine, Romania and Kazakhstan have declared readiness to join the agreement.

He reminded that now is a good opportunity to invite Iran to join the agreement, because Iran has good status for cooperation in multilateral transport.

The Inter-governmental Commission of Traceca works to reduce bureaucracy, removal of customs obstacles and creating a collection of identical documents for members of corridor, while other states like India, Pakistan and Greece may be able to join the corridor.

Aqaei said that although Iran became a member of Traceca, but because of not connecting to corridor rail network, it can not use other member states railways.

Traceca corridor program presented in the meeting of ministers of transport and trade of eight member countries (five in Central Asia and three in Caucasus) in Brussels in May 1993 and upon that a transport corridor defined from East to West through Black Sea- Caucasus Republics, Caspian Sea and Central Asia between Europe and Central Asia.

Iran joined the program in 2009 as the 14th member country.