Armenia says no update on Iran’s Persian Gulf - Black Sea corridor

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia does not have information about the timing of the implementation of a key Iranian project - the international transport corridor Persian Gulf - Black Sea, according to a statement from the Ministry of Territorial Administration and Infrastructure cited by Sputnik Armenia.

At the same time, the Ministry said, Yerevan realizes the importance of the prompt launch of the project and is waiting for a final response from Tehran.

The idea of launching the project was first raised by Iran in 2016. Officially, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece are taking part in it, the project should connect Tehran with Europe through Yerevan and Tbilisi and increase the transit capabilities of the countries involved. The issue of joining Iran and India is currently being discussed.

The Ministry noted that the sixth and so far the last meeting of representatives of the working group on the coordination of the project was held in Bulgaria in April 2022. At the meeting, the representatives of Armenia, Iran, Bulgaria signed the protocol of the meeting, which states that the final version of the Persian Gulf - Black Sea agreement is ready.

"The Iranian side sent the minutes of the sixth meeting and the final version of the agreement to the rest of the member countries for approval," the statement from the Ministry said.

After receiving the answer, Tehran was supposed to inform about the results of the coordination. However, more than a year later, no response has yet been received. Apparently, the countries participating in the project have not yet finally agreed on the implementation of the multimodal route.

For its part, Yerevan is ready to ratify the agreement, and believes that the launch of the poroject will give impetus to the development of a multimodal type of transportation and increase Armenia's transit function in international cargo transportation along the Europe-Asia axis.

The launch of Persian Gulf-Black Sea through the territory of Armenia is extremely important for Yerevan, not only in terms of attracting additional cargo traffic, investments and expanding logistics capacities. The transport artery will allow Armenia to receive a number of preferences, both political and economic, and the role of Armenia in the region will increase.