October 14, 2025
17:10
Alexey Overchuk together with Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev (left) and Minister of Transport and Urban Development of the Islamic Republic of Iran Farzaneh Sadegh (right) on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border. Inspection of the infrastructure of international checkpoints
Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexey Overchuk, together with the Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev and the Minister of Transport and Urban Development of the Islamic Republic of Iran Farzaneh Sadegh, traveled to the Azerbaijan-Iran border to inspect the infrastructure of international checkpoints operating and being built in order to implement Russia’s plans, Azerbaijan and Iran on the development of the western route of the North-South ITC.
The joint trip to the border was preceded by a trilateral meeting of representatives of the Russian Federation, the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran, dedicated to issues of infrastructure cooperation and strengthening transport connectivity in the region, held on November 13 in the capital of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The parties are focusing on the construction of road, railway, and customs infrastructure and debottlenecking the route to increase the capacity of the new transport corridor.
Having familiarized themselves with the work of checkpoints on the Azerbaijani and Iranian sides, Alexey Overchuk, Shahin Mustafayev and Farzaneh Sadegh held a working meeting to develop joint decisions to ensure equal conditions for carriers when crossing state borders.
As the Deputy Prime Minister noted, growing trade relations between the Russian Federation, the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Islamic Republic of Iran determine the joint work of the parties to strengthen transport connectivity between the countries and create seamless logistics along the entire western route of the North-South ITC.
In a conversation with journalists, Alexey Overchuk said that the parties have a plan to increase the volume of transportation along the international transport corridor “North-South” to 15 million tons and this requires coordination of efforts undertaken by all three countries.
“In Iran, design and survey work is currently underway to prepare for the construction of a section of railway tracks between Astara and Rasht,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.
Alexey Overchuk noted that the Iranian side briefed the participants on the progress in fulfilling obligations within the framework of the construction of the Rasht-Astara line, emphasizing that progress is being made in Iran in terms of preparations for construction.
According to the Deputy Prime Minister, road transport plays an important role in the development of the North-South international transport corridor. “In order to make traffic as convenient as possible for drivers, for carriers, for exporters, importers, the appropriate infrastructure must be created and functioning,” said Alexey Overchuk. According to him, these problems have been resolved on the Russian-Azerbaijani border and the checkpoints are functioning effectively, while the Republic of Azerbaijan has invested significant resources in the construction of a modern road network on its territory.
Alexey Overchuk noted the high activity of Russian carriers: “Today, when we entered Iran, we saw that the vast majority of trucks queuing to enter Azerbaijan from Iran were Russian cars.” He emphasized that there are close trade and economic ties between our countries and expressed confidence that they will expand.
The Deputy Prime Minister also told media representatives that following the negotiations in the Republic of Azerbaijan, the parties agreed to create a coordination mechanism: “The countries will create a joint working group, which will be headed by deputy ministers of transport and deputy heads of customs services of our countries, in order to quickly and scrupulously solve all the problems that exist here.”