Iran Press/ Iran News: Iran and Uzbekistan transport ministers signed an MoU in the presence of the Presidents of the two countries in Tehran on Sunday to promote comprehensive transport and transit cooperation, the road ministry announced.
The provisions of the MoU included strengthening of the transport and transit cooperation in international transport corridors, improving transit routes, developing road and rail transport, facilitating the connection of Iran to the Central Asian countries through the territory of Uzbekistan, removing all official duties for the road fleet in the territory of each country and facilitating all transport processes between the two countries.
In this MoU, the two sides emphasized harmonizing international transport processes.
Moreover, Iran and Uzbekistan decided to improve supply chain management in transport and target freight transit between the two countries up to 5 million tons per year. To this end, it was decided to prepare an action plan within three months.
Development of transit routes between Iran and Uzbekistan, especially through multimodal transport and commercialization of the southern branch of the East-West Corridor from the southern ports of Iran to Central Asia were among other provisions of this MoU.
In the meeting, Uzbekistan was urged to make necessary efforts to increase its rail freight through Iran territory to third countries.
In order to activate the rail corridor from and to China, from and to Turkey and Europe, it was decided that the parties should hold meetings with the railways of involved countries to determine the competitive tariff along the entire route and to decide on how to supply wagons and take the necessary measures.
Additionally, the two parties expressed their willingness to increase the number of regular flights and to hold specialized aviation training courses and cooperation in commercial aviation through the Civil Aviation Organization of Iran.
Iran announced its readiness to provide incentives related to maritime and port services for freight transit from Uzbekistan through the southern ports of Iran.
In March, transport ministers of Iran and Uzbekistan met to discuss the implementation of comprehensive transport cooperation.
In that meeting, Iran's road minister Mehrdad Bazr-Pash announced the preparation of a draft of the comprehensive plan for the development of transport cooperation between the two countries in all modes of transport and also implementation of the Ashgabat Agreement.
The Ashgabat agreement is a multinational transport agreement between the governments of Iran, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, India, Pakistan and Oman for creating an international transport and transit corridor facilitating transportation of goods between Central Asia and the Persian Gulf. The agreement came into force in April 2016. Ashgabat in Turkmenistan is the depository state for the agreement.
The agreement was originally signed by Iran, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Qatar and Oman on April 25, 2011. Qatar subsequently withdrew from the agreement in 2013, the same year Kazakhstan applied for membership, which was eventually approved in 2015. Pakistan has also joined the Agreement from November 2016. India formally joined in February 2018.
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