The governments of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have signed an agreement to develop the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route. The document provides for expanding infrastructure, digitalizing freight operations and simplifying border and customs procedures, infohub.kz reports.
According to the Akorda press service, the agreement was exchanged in Baku in the presence of President Qasym-Jomart Toqaev of Kazakhstan and President Ilham Aliyev of Azerbaijan.
The two sides intend to jointly increase the capacity of railways, roads and ports and to develop shipping and a dredging fleet on the Caspian. This will reduce the number of inspections and paper procedures.
The agreement provides for integrating information systems, applying the "single window" principle and tracking cargo along the entire route. Mutual recognition of electronic digital signatures will be enshrined in a separate document.
Border crossings will be made easier by the advance transmission of cargo data, fewer inspections and mutual recognition of the status of authorized economic operators — companies that enjoy customs simplifications.
A day earlier, at the VII summit of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence-Building Measures in Asia, Toqaev proposed drafting a common transport strategy. It would examine the potential of the Middle Corridor, the North–South route, the Belt and Road Initiative and TRIPP.
The Middle Corridor links China and Europe via Kazakhstan, the Caspian and the South Caucasus. As Kursiv previously reported, container traffic along it rose 58% in the first eight months of 2026, to 44,200 TEU — twenty-foot equivalent units.
The two countries' presidents earlier inaugurated a communications line across the bottom of the Caspian.