On March 11, Kazakhstan President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev arrived in Azerbaijan on a state visit. In Baku, Tokayev held talks with his Azerbaijani counterpart Ilham Aliyev. The two leaders also participated in the first meeting of the Interstate Council of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan.
Tokayev and Aliyev also took part via a teleconference in the ceremony of the arrival of a container train from the new Kazakh-Chinese transport and logistics center in Xi’an to the Absheron station (Azerbaijan) along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR). This event was preceded by the opening of the Kazakhstan terminal in Xi’an and the launch of the first train on the China-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan route on February 28.
Speaking at the ceremony, Tokayev emphasized that today, in conditions of global geopolitical turbulence, a new transport and logistics framework for Eurasia is being built. In his opinion, close and fruitful cooperation between Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan plays a key role in this process. Through joint efforts, the trade and economic potential of the two countries is expanding.
Speaking to journalists after the talks with the Azerbaijani president, Tokayev called Azerbaijan Kazakhstan’s strategic partner and said his visit to Baku was “complete success”.
“Today we talked about the fact that in addition to resources, the struggle for access to transport and logistics opportunities is now intensifying all over the world. This is a strategic area. It is gratifying that both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan closely interact here as natural partners. And today’s opening ceremony of the railway route from the port of Xi’an through the territory of Kazakhstan to Azerbaijan says a lot. This is truly a very important event. We talked about making joint efforts in the field of digitalization, the creation of artificial intelligence, and the construction of fiber-optic communications along the bottom of the Caspian Sea. These are unique projects,” said the President of Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev expressed satisfaction with the results of the negotiations. “The Trans-Caspian transport corridor is already a reality, which in itself will largely determine the level of regional cooperation, because it is impossible to become a transit country without good relations with neighbors. In this case, both Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan demonstrate their commitment to regional cooperation and strengthening their relations with their neighbors. Only the Caspian Sea separates us. But today this is not an obstacle. On the contrary, the Caspian Sea is a bridge not only between our countries, but also between many countries, because the Trans-Caspian transport route is now revealing its full potential.”
As part of Tokayev’s visit, Kazakhstan’s national oil and gas company KazMunayGas (KMG) and the state oil company of Azerbaijan SOCAR on March 11 signed an Agreement on a gradual increase in the volume of transit of Kazakh oil through the territory of Azerbaijan and a Memorandum of Strategic Cooperation on the purchase and sale of Kazakh oil.
The agreement on Kazakh oil transit provides for an increase in the volume of shipment of Kazakh oil along the Aktau-Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan route to 2.2 million tons per year.
The memorandum of strategic cooperation on the purchase and sale of Kazakh oil defines the general conditions and principles for the purchase and sale of Kazakh oil for further processing at the refineries of the SOCAR group, as well as subsequent trading in the regional and global markets.
Photo: akorda.kz
