Azerbaijan, Turkey, and Georgia signed a $422 million deal on Wednesday to build a railway corridor between Europe and Asia.
The Kars-Tbilisi-Baku railway, due for completion in 2009, follows the construction of major oil and gas pipelines that have turned the three countries into a strategic energy artery.
Until now there has been no direct rail link between neighbors Georgia and Turkey.
President Ilham Aliyev called the signing of the agreement of the railroad another triumph of independence of Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Building of the railway is expected to start in June and is scheduled for completion in two years.
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This is the blog dedicated to Azerbaijan's foreign policy. Given the nature of the topic it will also cover the regional issues and well beyond. Disclaimer: Everything posted here by contributors reflects their personal opinion and does not represent positions of any organization(s) they are affiliated with.
2 comments:
Congratulations to the three nations! May all these regional projects bring prosperity to our countries and prompt Armenia to realize what a deadend she forced herself into!
Vugar
February 7th 2007 entered into history as the date when the trilateral framework agreement on the construction of the Kars-Akhalkalaki-Tbilisi-Baku (a.k.a. BAK, i.e. Baku-Akhalkalaki-Kars) railroad was signed in the Georgian capital by the presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey. Needless to say how important this project is for connecting the region with Europe.
The project consists of the construction of a new 105-km-long railroad from Kars to Akhalkalaki (76 km and 29 km through Turkish and Georgian territories respectively) and reconstruction of the Akhalkalaki-Baku section, which is 160 km long.
In the future, Turkey and Azerbaijan might consider extension of the railroad from Kars to Iqdir and further to Sadarak. This would lift Armenia's blockade of Nakhichevan and promote economic boost of this Azerbaijani province . Besides, it would be beneficial for economic development of Eastern Anatolia too, which remains rather underdeveloped. As a matter of fact, the distance between Akhalkalaki and Kars is roughly the same as the one between Kars and Iqdir.
Naturally, sending goods from Baku to Nakhichevan via two foreign countries sounds silly. However, considering Azerbaijan's good relations with Georgia and Turkey in comparison with hostile Armenia and unpredictable Iran, and taking into consideration a relatively less costly railway transportation, this line could serve as a safe and stable land bridge between Baku and Nakhichevan via the friendly countries, not to mention Nakhichevan's direct railway access to Turkish and European markets.
Vugar Seidov
Budapest
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