Georgia to join Lapis Lazuli transit corridor connecting Europe and Asia
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Georgian Vice Prime Minister, Foreign Minister Mikheil Janelidze is in Turkmenistan today to sign an important deal that will make Georgia part of another transport corridor connecting Europe and Asia.
Janelidze will sign the Lapis Lazuli Corridor Agreement together with four other nations on the sidelines of the Seventh Regional Economic Cooperation Conference on Afghanistan (RECCA VII) in Ashgabat.
The agreement will be signed between Georgia, Afghanistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Turkey.
The Lapis-Lazuli transit, trade and transport route aims to enhance regional economic cooperation and connectivity between the five countries involved, thereby expanding economic and cultural links between Europe and Asia.
In doing so, the initiative seeks to improve transport infrastructure and procedures - including for road, rail, and sea - increase exports, and expand the economic opportunities of citizens in the countries benefiting from this new transport corridor.
"By joining the Lapis lazuli deal, Georgia is becoming part of yet another important transit corridor that connects Europe and Asia”, the Georgian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.
While in Ashgabat, Janelidze is also scheduled to hold bilateral meetings with Turkmen high officials.
Georgia and Turkmenistan are intensifying bilateral economic relations. Latest data revealed between January-October 2015, trade turnover between the two countries had increased by 63 percent in comparison to the previous year.
Georgia and Turkmenistan are deepening bilateral cooperation across a range of sectors including economic, transport, energy, tourism, culture and science.
Georgia has become part of the Lapis Lazuli Corridor, a transit, trade and transport route that connects Europe and Asia by road, rail and sea thanks to a long-awaited new international trade and transport corridor deal.
Georgian and Turkmen top officials believe the two nations have potential to further enhance transport-transit ties and say a recently signed deal can play an important role in the process.
Afghanistan is expected to send its first cargo load to Europe through the Lapis Lazuli route that passes through Georgia in the next six weeks, reports 1TV of Afghanistan.
More than 175 tonnes of cotton, dried fruit and sesame are the first export products that Afghanistan will deliver to Europe through the Lapis Lazuli transit route which passes through Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan and Georgia.
Nine trucks with goods from Afghanistan traversing the Caspian Sea en route to Turkey landed in Georgia today, announces the Ministry of Economy.