TEHRAN – The heads of the railways of Iran and Kazakhstan signed a memorandum of understanding (MOU) to increase transportation cooperation and set preferential tariffs between the two countries in order to increase the transit of goods passing through Iran.

The MOU was signed on Monday during a meeting between a high-ranking delegation from Kazakhstan headed by the country’s Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Integration Bakhyt Sultanov and the head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways (known as RAI), IRNA reported.

RAI Head Miad Salehi and Nurlan Sauranbayev, head of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy (KTZ), which is the country’s national railway company, signed the MOU documents.

Based on this MOU, part of the cargo passing through the China-Russia-Europe railway corridor will be transported through Iran via the China-Kazakhstan-Iran-Europe railway corridor.

During the meeting, the two sides also agreed that the first China-Kazakhstan-Iran-Turkey container train would arrive in Iran in less than a month.

Back in November 2021, Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan had signed a tripartite MOU on railroad cooperation. The MOU was negotiated and agreed upon on the sidelines of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) summit.

According to the mentioned MOU, a joint working group would be formed to follow up rail transit between Iran, Kazakhstan, and Turkmenistan.

Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, and Iran (KTI) Railway Corridor was officially put into operation at the end of 2014.

Over the past few years, Iran has been following a new strategy for promoting its transit status by developing rail infrastructure.

According to the former RAI Head Saeed Rasouli by completing rail infrastructures Iran is seeking to access new transit markets with over 35 million tons of annual capacity.

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Photo: RAI Head Miad Salehi (L) and Chairman of Kazakhstan Temir Zholy Nurlan Sauranbayev sign MOU documents in Tehran on Monday.