The first meeting of the Turkmen-Kazakh working group on transport, transit and logistics was held in Ashgabat, reports the Turkmenistan Cabinet of Ministers' Agency for Transport and Communications.
Batyr Annaev, Deputy Director General of the Agency, represented the Turkmen side in the negotiations, while Talgat Lastayev, Deputy Minister of Transport, represented the Kazakh delegation. As a result, the parties signed a memorandum on transport interconnectivity and agreed to set up a joint working group.
These agreements are aimed at adopting favourable tariff conditions, synchronising infrastructure development and introducing digital technologies for information exchange.
"The meeting discussed strengthening partnerships in road, rail and maritime transport and support for logistics organisations."
In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the total trade volume between the two Caspian neighbours, which share a total land border of 458,263 km.
Experts told Daryo that Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan have new opportunities due to active attempts by China and Russia to develop new transit corridors.
As established supply chains have been disrupted, demand for the Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran railway has soared. The project was launched in 2014, but with a capacity of 10mn tonnes of freight per year, only a tenth of this is being used.
In line with the same strategic goals, it is planned to expand co-operation between the seaports of Aktau, Kuryk (Kazakhstan) and Turkmenbashi, as well as to build a road bridge across the Garabogaz Bay as part of the Turkmenbashi - Kazakhstan border route.
Eziz Boyarov
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