Ambassador of Kazakhstan Timur Urazaev met with the Minister of Transport and Communications of Lithuania Marius Skuodis to discuss cooperation issues between the two countries in the transport and logistics sphere, El.kz cites MFA.
The interlocutors reviewed the implementation of the agreements reached during the visit of Minister Skuodis to Kazakhstan in June 2022, the work of the Kazakh-Lithuanian Joint Commission on International Transportation, as well as the preparation of the visit of the Kazakh delegation consisting of representatives of the logistics business and government agencies to Klaipeda and Vilnius in June of this year.
Ambassador Urazaev spoke about the work carried out by the Government of Kazakhstan to develop transport infrastructure, including the Trans-Caspian international transport route (TITR), as well as digitalization in the field of international freight traffic.
The Lithuanian minister noted that during his visit to the “Khorgos” International Center for Border Cooperation he got acquainted with the work of the logistics center on the Kazakh-Chinese border and the potential of Kazakhstan in transporting goods in the East-West direction. Lithuania is interested in increasing the volume of cargo transportation through the TITR, as it is economically more profitable and faster than the delivery of goods via the Northern route. At the same time, this transport corridor's infrastructure requires further development to meet the growing needs of cargo carriers in Kazakhstan and European countries.
Minister Skuodis noted that at a recent meeting at the Secretariat of the International Transport Forum (ITF) in Paris he presented the possibility of linking the Trans-Caspian route with the Middle Corridor and other European logistics routes. At the same time, he assured that after taking over the chairmanship of the ITF in May of this year, Lithuania would actively promote this idea on the platform of the intergovernmental organization.