Iran, Turkmenistan Agree to Launch Several Flight Routes, Facilitate Border Transit

Iranian and Turkmen officials in a series of recent meetings in Ashgabat agreed to launch several direct flights between the two countries and facilitate their border transit.
Deputy Iranian Road and Urbanization Minister Shahriyar Afandizadeh told FNA that the agreement was made in a conference in Ashgabat on July 8 and 9.

“Iran raised the proposal for launching flight routes between the two countries and it was welcomed by the other side,” Afandizadeh said on Wednesday.

Tehran and Ashgabat also agreed to facilitate visa requirements for the truck drivers transiting goods between the two countries, he added.

Afandizadeh said that the two sides also underlined the rapid launch of Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan- Iran railway.

The joint railway network, dubbed as the Caspian Sea Eastern Rail Corridor, is more than 900 kilometers in length, including 140 kilometers in Kazakhstan, 700 kilometers in Turkmenistan, and 90 kilometers in Iran.

Iranian Minister of Road and Urbanization Ali Nikzad underlined in May that the joint railway connecting national networks of Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will become operational soon.

The railway will link Iran to Turkmenistan and then to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and will connect the CIS countries with the Indian Ocean and high seas and the Persian Gulf littoral states.

The primary agreement on the construction of the rail link among Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was signed between presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in April 2007 in the city of Turkmenbashi and its final agreement was signed in a summit meeting in Tehran in September of the same year by the three presidents.

The total route of the railway is 1,000 kilometers, of which 90 kilometers would be in Iran, 700 kilometers in Turkmenistan and 210 kilometers in Kazakhstan.

The railway facilitates transportation of goods from the Central Asian countries to the Persian Gulf.