North-South project in focus of Baku-Delhi talks

/By Azernews/

By Nigar Abbasova

Azerbaijan’s Deputy Foreign Minister Khalaf Khalafov met with an Indian delegation led by the Deputy FM Sujata Mehta on July 28 to conduct the next round of political consultations between the two countries.

Implementation of the project on the North-South transport corridor was one of the issues on the highest agenda during the meeting.

The Indian diplomat praised works carried out by Azerbaijan in implementing and boosting the project.

“Being a very important initiative, the project will provide a huge benefit for the countries of the region,” she said.

The North-South corridor, from India to Helsinki, with a length of 5,000 kilometers is designed to carry more than 20 million tons per year. It is a multimodal route for transportation of passengers and cargo from Russia's St. Petersburg to the Mumbai port. It is designed to carry transit cargo from India, Iran and other Persian Gulf countries to the territory of Russia (the Caspian Sea) and further - to Northern and Western Europe. Currently the flow of goods from India towards the European part of the Russian Federation is provided by maritime transport.

The North-South route, part of which will pass along the western coast of the Caspian Sea, from Russia to Iran through Azerbaijan enjoys several advantages compared to other transport such as Suez Canal-the Mediterranean Sea-Northern Europe and the Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan-Russia-Northern Europe routes.

Mehta also expressed readiness of her country to cooperate with Azerbaijan in all fields, especially in economy and energy.

She added that the cooperation in the IT sector, agriculture, cooperation within the UN and other issues were also discussed. Moreover, the two sides discussed possible mutual visits.

“India also is interested in maintaining the political dialogue with Azerbaijan,” she added.

She also hailed the importance of the cooperation in the field of energy, underlining that and Indian companies are interested in cooperation with Azerbaijan.

India recognized Azerbaijan in December 1991. Diplomatic relations with Azerbaijan were established on 28th February, 1992.