On October 21, the second meeting of the Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan Supreme Interstate Council was held in Astana with the participation of President of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev and President of Kazakhstan Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.
Special attention was paid to expanding trade and economic ties. The two countries agreed to take the necessary measures to double bilateral trade turnover in the near future to $1 billion.
The parties discussed opportunities for cooperation in agriculture, energy, manufacturing, construction, and digitalization.
To finance promising projects, the parties agreed to step up the activities of the Kazakh-Azerbaijani Direct Investment Fund.
According to Tokayev, the parties reviewed the progress of major infrastructure projects, in particular the strategically important Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. Last year, freight traffic along this route increased by 62 percent to 4.5 million tons. This year’s figures are also encouraging, with growth of 2 percent. “We are working with international partners to simultaneously eliminate the so-called bottlenecks by establishing a single long-term tariff along the corridor. This will certainly improve efficiency, ensure uninterrupted supply along the entire route, and, as we plan, allow us to increase freight volumes to 10 million tons,” the Kazakh president said.
Tokayev noted joint work on transporting Kazakh oil along the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route. Last year, nearly 1.5 million tons of this strategic commodity were transited through Azerbaijan. “We plan to significantly increase this volume in the near future,” said Tokayev.
Aliyev noted that Azerbaijan has lifted all restrictions on cargo transit to Armenia, and the first such transit cargo was a shipment of Kazakh grain to Armenia.
Aliyev and Tokayev also attended a presentation of the Middle Corridor Development (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route) joint project.
The Middle Corridor, as the main transport-logistics route connecting China and Central Asian countries with European states, plays a strategic role in strengthening regional and intercontinental trade. It was noted that shipments from China to Azerbaijan are steadily increasing and are projected to triple by 2030 compared to current levels, further underscoring the project’s importance.
Photo: akorda.kz
