Expert: North-South corridor to improve supply routes from Belarus and Russia to the EU and Persian Gulf region

As noted by political expert Piotr Petrovsky in his talk with sb.by, the effective use and modernisation of the North-South transport and logistics corridor connecting Belarus and the northern regions of Russia with southern Iranian ports that provide access to the countries of the Arabian Peninsula, East Africa and South Asia (which is strategically important in the supply of primarily Belarusian fertilisers) is a topic for the intensification of Belarusian-Iranian relations

“At the moment, the large-scale modernisation of railway tracks in sections in Azerbaijan and Iran are in full swing, and some results have already been achieved. At the end of June 2024, a part of the North-South transport corridor — a railway section from the city of Rasht to the port of Caspian – was launched. The project is scheduled to be completed by 2027. It is estimated at 1.6 billion Euros and will become an alternative to the famous Suez Canal, contributing to the improvement of supply routes from Belarus and Russia to Europe, as well as to the Persian Gulf region,” the expert explained.

Mr. Petrovsky added that the North-South corridor covers St. Petersburg, the Caspian Sea and Iran. Belarus plans to create its own port in Astrakhan to organise trade on the Caspian Sea and the Volga River. “In short, thanks to the existing Russian-Iranian agreements and our Belarusian-Iranian ones, we get the opportunity to compensate for the losses for our country from the Western sanctions strike. It is also very important that automobile carriers of Belarus and Iran were allowed last year to transport goods without permits,” he noted.