TEHRAN – Iran and Turkey have agreed to increase rail freight transportation between the two countries to one million tons in 2024, Head of the Islamic Republic of Iran Railways Miad Salehi said.

According to Salehi, the agreement was reached between the two sides during a meeting with the Director General of the State Railways of the Republic of Turkey (TCDD) Hasan Pezük, the portal of Iran’s Transport Ministry reported on Saturday.

“In a meeting we had with the head of the Turkish Railways good understandings were reached. Among other things, we agreed to exchange 200 wagons every 24 hours from the Razi border, and with this goal, we can achieve the exchange of one million tons of rail freight between the two countries in the next year,” Salehi said.

In this regard, it was decided that the Turkish Railways should quickly restore the infrastructure of its rail network and fix the damage caused by the earthquake as well as the problems caused by the decrease in the water level of Lake Van, the official explained.

He further stated that the agreements reached are a big step to increase transit cargo through Turkey to Europe and added: “Since Turkey is considered to be the gateway of Asia to Europe, based on the previous understandings with the countries of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan and China, we were able to transport cargo from these countries to Europe via China-Kazakhstan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Turkey, and this is a turning point for increasing international cargo transit.”

Iran is one of the countries with a special status in trade and transit relations due to its strategic location and special geography, as the country is the passage of several important international corridors.

Considering its geographical location, Iran can play a significant role in the transit of goods in the region and benefit a lot from its status in this due.

Paying attention to upstream documents, especially the country's development plans, and the government's decision to develop transit, paying special attention to infrastructure development, reducing transit time, making it cheaper to cross Iran and making more advantages over competitors, due to the short path for customers, can lead to facilitating the development of transit so that the country can reach the desired growth in this due.

EF/MA