MOSCOW, May 17. /TASS/. The Rasht-Astara railroad section will allow establishing direct service across the North-South route, Russian President Vladimir Putin said at the ceremony of signing the intergovernmental agreement between Moscow and Tehran on cooperation for financing designing, construction and supply of goods and services for the creation of this part of the railroad on Wednesday.

"A railway line 162 km long will be constructed between Iranian cities of Rasht and Astara. It would seem that this is a small section, though its commissioning will allow establishing direct uninterrupted, or as specialists put it seamless, railway service across the whole route North-South," he said. Putin joined the ceremony via video link.

The Russian president noted that this marks the beginning of implementation of a large-scale project on creation of the International North-South Transport Corridor. "We have said much on importance of building this through transport corridor that is designed to connect Russian ports in the Baltics and northern seas to Iranian ports on the coast of the Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean. As a reminder the principal decision on joint work of Russia and Iran in this direction was taken during the top-level talks in Tehran in July 2022," he said.

The successful interaction between Moscow and Tehran within the framework of such a large project "reflects the high level, fruitful, mutually beneficial nature of Russian-Iranian relations," Putin pointed out. "Both Russia and Iran attribute really paramount importance to strengthening of trade-economic and other bilateral ties. Those ties are built on principles of friendliness, respect and consideration of each other’s interests," he added.