FM: Railroad to Link Iran, Turkmenistan, Kazakhstan Soon
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – The Iran-Turkmenistan-Kazakhstan railroad will be inaugurated in the near future, Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif announced on Saturday.
Speaking in a joint press conference with his Turkmen counterpart Saturday, Zarif welcomed Rashid Meredov and said that the two-day visit and the recent meeting between Meredov and senior Iranian officials, including the Iranian oil minister, demonstrates the significance of closer bilateral relations between the two brother and friendly countries.
The Turkmen top diplomat, for his part, said he was proud to announce that Tehran-Ashgabat relations were at an excellent level.
Rashid Meredov referred to Zarif’s recent visit of Turkmenistan and his meetings with his country high-ranking officials, including the Turkmen President Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedow, saying that such visits pave the ground for the furthert expansion of bilateral relations.
Tehran has the largest volume of trade exchange with Turkmenistan after Russia. The Tajan-Mashhad-Sarakhs railroad, the $139 million Korpeje-Kurt Kui gas pipeline in western Turkmenistan and the $167 million Dousti ('Friendship' in Persian) Dam in the south of the country were built through a joint venture.
The North-South Transnational Corridor is a 677 km-long railroad line connecting the Central Asian countries of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan with Iran and the Persian Gulf.
Turkmenistan’s main exports to Iran were natural gas, oil and petrochemical products, as well as textiles.
