Speaking at a meeting in Tehran with Turkmenistan’s Foreign Minister Raşit Öwezgeldiýewiç Meredow, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Abbas Akhundi welcomed the idea of forming a joint marketing working group between the two countries saying “the working group would decide upon policies and tariff rates for attracting transit cargo via Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railroad so that any country in the world would be able to use it as a competitive route.
“Accordingly, managing director of Iranian Railway Company will make necessary correspondences for the establishment of the working group,” added the official urging Turkmenistan to take proper measures as well.
Akhundi underlined that Iran would make all necessary efforts to develop transit via Turkmenistan path toward Central Asia, Russia and China.
Pointing to Turkmenistan’s promise to connect its railway to Iran at the beginning of Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railway operation, he said "an Austrian consultant has conducted relevant studies and we expect Turkmenistan to announce the outcomes as soon as possible.”
Iran’s road minister emphasized implementation of reached agreements by the two countries’ presidents over boosting daily truck traffic to 1000 and called for stipulation of a specific time for operation of the deal.
He called for an increase in daily traffic between the two sides from current 600 to 800 trucks adding “if Turkmens collect necessary permissions, truck traffic can reach 800 by June or July while Iran is also ready to take proper steps by creating single-window systems in border terminals.”
“Being the head of Iran-Turkmenistan joint economic commission, I declare Iran’s willingness to remove obstacles and difficulties in the development of economic and trade relations between the two parties,” Akhundi concluded.
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