China, Kazakhstan start trial transit transportation of cargo to Europe via Georgia

Kazakhstan and China on Friday started transporting transit cargo from the Kazakh port of Kuryk to Baku seaport via the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor, a logistics route connecting Central Asia and China to Europe via the South Caucasus, in trial mode, the Ministry of Transport of Kazakhstan said.

A meeting of the road transport commission of Kazakhstan and China was held in Aktau, aimed at launching the trial transit transportation of cargo via the Kuryk and Baku seaports via the China-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan-Georgia route for the first time in history, the body noted.

The first three 80-ton Chinese trucks left Ürümqi, a city in northwestern China, and boarded on a ferry at Kuryk port on Thursday to head to Baku via the China-Kazakhstan-Azerbaijan-Georgia route, the Ministry’s release stated.

Ali Altai, the Chair of the Transport Committee of the Kazakh Transport Ministry, said hundreds of millions of tons of cargo from China to Western countries were delivered by sea in 52 days and small cargoes by railway in 22 days, while the Middle Corridor reduced the time of vehicle transportation up to 12 days, he added.