A new checkpoint, Bedel, opened on the Kyrgyz-Chinese border on September 3.
The new crossing is located at a mountain pass in a remote southeastern corner of Kyrgyzstan, situated roughly equidistantly from the Kyrgyz city of Karakol at Lake Issyk-Kul and Aksu Prefecture of China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region.
The Bedel checkpoint was opened under a simplified regime on the Barskoon-Uchturfan-Aksu motor road with the creation of temporary infrastructure. Full-scale construction of the highway, as well as the creation of customs and border infrastructure that meets international standards, will be jointly implemented by 2027, the press service of the Kyrgyz Cabinet of Minister said.
The opening of the Bedel checkpoint will allow Kyrgyzstan and China to increase bilateral trade turnover.
For decades, there were only two crossing points between Kyrgyzstan and China: Irkeshtam and Torugart. These high-altitude border crossings are often closed in winter due to heavy snowfalls.
The new crossing is expected to reduce the delivery time of goods from Xinjiang as compared to the current Kashgar-Torugart-Naryn-Bishkek transportation route.
In a statement on the occasion of the opening of the Bedel crossing, issued on September 2, Kyrgyzstan President Sadyr Japarov stated that the issue of opening this checkpoint was on the agenda since 1996, but the final agreement on its opening was reached during his first state visit to China in May last year and negotiations with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
Japarov called the launch of the Bedel checkpoint a “historic event” that opens up new opportunities for Kyrgyzstan and significantly increases the country’s transport and logistics potential.
Photo: gov.kg
