TEHRAN — The secretary general of the International Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia, TRACECA, met with Iranian Deputy Foreign Minister for Economic Diplomacy Mehdi Safari in Tehran on Saturday.

In the meeting, Asset Assavbayev said the purpose of his visit to Iran is to underline the need for maximum use of Iran’s transit routes for transferring goods from Central Asian countries to Europe.

Assavbayev then pointed to the new situation in the region, saying the amount of goods carried from Central Asia to Europe through the Caspian Sea and the Republic of Azerbaijan is beyond the capacity of those regions, and as a result, the routes that pass through Iran are now of high significance.

For his part, Safari welcomed expansion of cooperation with TRACECA and said Iran’s rail and road routes are among the safest for transportation. He added that infrastructure facilities are ready and Iran’s huge transit possibilities can help facilitate international transit of goods, especially under the current circumstances.

The Iranian deputy foreign minister also spoke about facilitating issuance of visas for drivers of TRACECA member countries to cross the transit routes of Iran. Safari underlined that Iran’s Foreign Ministry is ready for any cooperation to this end and there are no limitations in this regard.

He then urged the TRACECA secretary general to facilitate issuance of visas for Iranian drivers passing through the members of the group.

The "Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia" was established in 1998 with the participation of 12 member countries and its headquarters is in Baku.

Iran joined the international group in 2009 as its 13th member.