Today, at the Turkmen-Azerbaijani talks in Baku, President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov called on the parties to unite their efforts in the field of transport, develop common approaches and start conducting coordinated transport diplomacy in the international arena, which provides for active interaction with specialized international structures. In particular, with the UN Economic Commission for Europe (ECE), the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), the International road transport Union and others, the state news Agency of Turkmenistan reports.
According to the Turkmen leader, the geographical location of the two countries necessitates an objective need for close partnership in this area, which should be based on a verified strategy for creating combined transport and transit corridors between Asia and Europe. This strategy should include the construction of new highways with the participation not only of Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan, but also of third countries.
The Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey transport corridor (Lapis Lazuli) was named as an example of such successful cooperation. The agreement was signed on November 15, 2017 in Ashgabat within the framework of the 7th Ministerial Conference of regional economic cooperation on Afghanistan (RECCA). On November 28, 2018, an international conference on transport was held in the city of Turkmenbashi, where the main attention was paid to the aspects of practical implementation of this corridor.
"In order to expand mutually beneficial cooperation in this sphere, there is a need to make more intensive use of the opportunities of the ports of Turkmenbashi and Baku, as well as the seaport of Alyat, by working out effective mechanisms for car-ferry and railway-ferry communications," the head of Turkmenistan said.
