"So, we operate actively with respect to the EU-Azerbaijan partnership. Italy always strongly supported Azerbaijan’s rapprochement with EU," President of the Republic of Azerbaijan Ilham Aliyev said in an interview with the correspondent of the Italian “Il Sole 24 Ore” newspaper Roberto Bongiorni in Cernobbio, APA reports.
"We built the biggest trade sea port in the Caspian and now it is full. So, we need to expand it after 25 million tons of cargo handling and one million TEU. We built a ship building yard in Baku, so now we produce all types of ship to transport oil and cargos from the eastern shores of the Caspian. We built railroads and highways and the export through Azerbaijan from Central Asia and China grows. I think the growth is more than 20%. That all was done before the Russian-Ukrainian war. The Russian-Ukrainian war only sent the signal to companies on the eastern shores of the Caspian that this route should be more closely examined. And we provide good tariffs and we provide all the necessary logistical support. So, having no access to open seas, being a landlocked country, Azerbaijan today is becoming a regional transportation hub, not only from East to West and backwards, but also from North to South. The South-North transportation corridor crosses Azerbaijan. There is no other way for this corridor to go. And this corridor also becomes very important, for instance, for Russian companies, which now have difficulties in exporting their goods to European destination because of the sanctions. So, the route from Azerbaijan to Iran and to the Persian Gulf becomes for Russian companies one of the most attractive. And also from the Persian Gulf through Azerbaijan to Russia. So, we are sitting on two corridors – the South-North and East-West and, of course, it increases the geopolitical importance of Azerbaijan and gives an opportunity to create new jobs and we expect that the South-North transportation corridor will be as important as the East-West. For us, both have the same value, because both cross our territory," said President.
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