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Main tasks of two new working groups established by Azerbaijan, Russia, and Iran announced

14 October 2025 17:04 (UTC +04:00)

In Baku, we held extensive discussions regarding the North‑South Transport Corridor, which connects Azerbaijan, Russia, and Iran, said Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, APA’s correspondent dispatched to Iran reports.

Shahin Mustafayev said that in this field, an agreement was signed between Russia and Iran in 2023: “An agreement has been reached on the construction of the Rasht‑Astara railway, an important component of the North‑South Transport Corridor. Also, in December 2024, the governments of Azerbaijan and Russia signed an agreement on the promotion of the North‑South Transport Corridor. According to this agreement, by January 1, 2028, Azerbaijan and Russia will take the necessary measures to ensure 5 million tonnes of cargo transportation per year. At the second stage, after the railways in Iran are ready and relevant work is carried out in Russia, Azerbaijan will also take the necessary measures within its territory, and the volume of these cargo transports will reach 15 million tonnes. The Southern Cargo Terminal, an important component of the North‑South Transport Corridor and which we jointly inspected today, is on track to have its main works completed by the end of this year. The terminal’s cargo handling capacity will be expanded to up to 5 million tons. Once these works are finished, the North‑South Transport Corridor by railway will connect Northern Europe, Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, and the Gulf. At the same time, one of the main components of the North‑South Transport Corridor is the organization of road transport.

Today we also inspected the new road bridge that connects Azerbaijan with Iran, where works are mostly complete. On the Azerbaijani side, these works are finished; once the works on the Iranian side are completed in about 5‑6 months, the throughput capacity of this bridge and border crossing point will increase many times over. Provision will be made for 500 vehicles to cross toward Azerbaijan and 500 vehicles toward Iran daily. This will put an end to the traffic jams in the city of Astara. Thus, we are talking about transporting 15 million tons of cargo via the North‑South Transport Corridor. The three parties have decided to establish an appropriate Working Group, tasked with preparing an Action Plan to ensure those volumes. That Working Group will be instructed to present the Action Plan of relevant measures within 3 months, and we will review it, and then submit it to the heads of state for approval. We also agreed to create a second Working Group to discuss existing issues in road transportation. The second Working Group should prepare measures to address the existing questions in the road transportation sector and present them to us."

The Deputy Prime Minister noted that yesterday in Baku, the rules of procedure of the previously established Working Group in the field of customs were approved at the level of deputy heads of customs agencies of the three countries: “This is a very important document. At the same time, as a result of the liberation of our lands thanks to Azerbaijan’s Victory in 2020, we have held discussions on the design of the road connecting the territory of Azerbaijan with the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic.”