Armenia wants rail link with Iran, Russia, Central Asia through Azerbaijan

PanARMENIAN.Net - Armenia is interested in having a railway connection with Iran, Russia and Central Asia through the territory of Azerbaijan, Foreign Minister Ararat Mirzoyan told a meeting with his Azerbaijan, Iranian, Russian and Turkish counterparts in Tehran on Monday, October 23.

“Armenia gives importance especially to the process of integrating railway infrastructures, through the construction or re-operation of the necessary infrastructures in particular,” Mirzoyan said, according to the press service of the Armenian Foreign Ministry.

“The Republic of Armenia is interested in having a railway connection with Iran, Russia and Central Asia through the territory of Azerbaijan, based on the principle of reciprocity providing access to the railway passing through its territory for other regional countries, as well as for other international passage. In this context, the reopening of the Gyumri-Kars railway, as well as the passage of a branch of the North-South project through the territory of Armenia, is of no less important.”

The leaders of Azerbaijan and Turkey, Ilham Aliyev and Recep Tayyip Erdogan, came up with the initiative of a six-sided format of cooperation on the unblocking of economic and transport ties in the Couth Caucasus. Russia and Iran welcomed the idea, while Georgia announced that it did not plan to participate in this regional initiative and offered its own format of negotiations between Baku and Yerevan to maintain peace in the form of a "troika". On December 10, 2021, the first meeting of the 3+3 platform at the level of deputy foreign ministers was held in Moscow. Tehran hosted the second meeting on October 23.