Bilateral meeting between representatives of the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Kazakhstan was held within the framework of the TRACECA Project “Motorways of the Sea on the Black and Caspian Seas”.

The meeting was attended by the National Secretary of the PS IGC TRACECA in the Republic of Azerbaijan, Mr. Akif Mustafayev, the National Secretary of the PS IGC TRACECA in the Republic of Kazakhstan, Mr. Murat Bekmagambetov, representatives of Ministries of Transport, Customs Authorities, Ports Authorities, commercial, Maritime Companies, Forwarding Agents Association, consultants and local experts of the project as well as PS IGC TRACECA expert on maritime transport.

Overall objective of the meeting was to find common grounds and ways to reduce the main barriers for Motorways of the Sea project’s developments at bilateral level between the Republic of Azerbaijan and the Republic of Kazakhstan as well as to work out solutions to improve trade and transport conditions on the central TRACECA corridor and progress of the  MoS Pilot Projects.

The participants of the meeting exchanged views on possible MoS pilot projects, existing barriers for maritme based intermodal transport (MoS), and considered current status of the bilateral cooperation in the field of trade, transport and transit.

On the outcomes of the meeting, it was recognized that there is a need to promote the central part of TRACECA via the maritime link Baku-Aktau within the scope of their collaboration to meet the expectations of market and realize the potentials for trade and transit.

The Parties agreed to review internally, between the governments represented by transport authorities, the advancement status in implementing the parity principle, undertake further initiatives for simplified and improved customs and other border agency management methods, to liaise on the harmonization of the national legislation with the norms of international conventions and treaties.