Azerbaijani and Russian transport ministries prepare several joint agreements

The Russian Transport Ministry stresses great success has been achieved in the Azerbaijani transport sector. The ministry is interested in Azerbaijan's experience in the construction of roads, the port of Alat and a new airport terminal, Russian Deputy Transport Minister Valery Okulov said at the third Russian-Azerbaijani inter-regional forum Russian-Azerbaijani Dialogue-2012 in Baku today, Trend reports.

"In 2011, the turnover of goods between the two countries amounted to 5.5 million tons and 2.5 million tons in the first five months of this year," Okulov said.

He said that today Russia faces the task of maximising use of the country's transport capacity.

"In this context, the development of the North-South transport corridor has great importance and in particular the development of the Astrakhan transport hub, the port of Makhachkala and the implementation of the trilateral agreement between Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran for the construction of the Rasht-Astara railway with a length of 172 kilometres," he said. "This railway will allow the laying of the shortest route between the ports of the Baltic Sea and the Persian Gulf."

He said that the ministries of the two countries continue working to improve the legal framework for cooperation and preparing a number of joint agreements.

"We aim at developing cooperation in all spheres, not only in terms of quality indices, but also quality and safety and the joint introduction of modern technologies," Okulov said.