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Putin calls for improvement of Caspian region’s transport architecture

The Caspian Five includes Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan

ASHGABAT, June 29. /TASS/. The Caspian nations still have a lot to do to improve the transport architecture of the region, Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a summit of five Caspian nations in the Turkmen capital of Ashgabat on Wednesday.

"In our opinion, a lot of remains to be done to improve the transport and logistics architecture of the region. First of all, it concerns the construction of the North-South international transport corridor," Putin said.

This corridor which is more than 7,000 km long is "a truly large-scale project of a transport artery," the Russian leader noted.

"It is expected that the speedy launch of this corridor will be facilitated by the agreement between the Caspian states on transport cooperation, which came into force last year and is aimed at turning the Caspian Sea region into a major international logistics hub," the Russian President added.

"I see how intensively they are developing this area in Kazakhstan, in Azerbaijan, so we also need to make vigorous efforts in this direction from the Russian side," Putin said.

He also informed the summit participants that Russia has adopted and is implementing a strategy for the development of national seaports in the Caspian Basin, as well as rail and road approaches to them until 2030, and is expanding the relevant infrastructure.

The Caspian Five includes Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan.

Iran, India and Russia signed an intergovernmental agreement on the creation of a multi-mode North-South transport corridor in 2000. Later, the number of participants expanded to 14. The goal of the project is to attract the transit of cargo flows from India, Iran and the Persian Gulf countries through the Russian territory to Europe (in comparison with the sea route through the Suez Canal, the distance is more than halved, which reduces the time and cost of transportation). For the moment, the project combines several various transport systems of individual states. India has invested about $2.1 billion in the project. Part of it was invested in the construction of transport infrastructure in Iran.

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