Alexei Overchuk’s working visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan

Deputy Prime Minister of the Russian Federation Alexei Overchuk paid a working visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan, where he attended an opening ceremony for the Khanoba customs checkpoint on the Russia-Azerbaijan border together with Deputy Prime Minister of the Republic of Azerbaijan Shahin Mustafayev and Prime Minister of the Republic of Dagestan Adbulmuslim Adbulmuslimov.

The new customs checkpoint will ease the flow of goods
and speed up cargo deliveries along the North-South transport corridor and will
also simplify the procedure for crossing the Russian-Azerbaijani border. 

In his remarks Alexei Overchuk stressed that the opening
of the Khanoba customs checkpoint reaffirmed Russia’s and Azerbaijan’s mutual
interest in enhancing trade and economic cooperation. “Trade between Russia and
Azerbaijan reached nearly $4 billion in 2022, which is a record high figure with
a 24 percent growth year on year. We also see Azerbaijan’s sincere commitment
to strengthening ties with the Russian Federation from the efforts of the Intergovernmental
Commission on Economic Cooperation between the Russian Federation and the
Republic of Azerbaijan,” the Deputy Prime Minister said.

Alexei Overchuk noted that the two countries’ joint
work takes into account the regional and global contexts. Deglobalisation,
climate change, technology and energy transition processes underway in the
world prompt the establishment of new ties and industrial and logistics chains
in Eurasia. 

“This checkpoint is very important for the entire
North-South corridor, whose parts are joining together and ensuring seamless transit
of cargoes,” the Deputy Prime Minister said. “We drove along the new road earlier
today and saw that road infrastructure is ready. We also discussed the
development of railways infrastructure to connect the Russian Federation,
Azerbaijan, Iran and the Persian Gulf and to provide for transporting cargoes
to the markets of the Global South.”

Alexei Overchuk noted that the Russian
Federation is modernising the Yarag-Kazmalyar and Tagirkent-Kazmalyar border
crossing points, where the number of lanes has been increased, thus eliminating
cargo delays and queues.