TEHRAN (Iran News) Hossein Khanlari, CEO of Iran Air, announced the launch in an interview with IRNA, highlighting that the new route is designed to improve regional connectivity, facilitate travel, and promote economic cooperation with neighboring countries.

The new Tabriz-Baku service will operate weekly on Tuesdays using an Airbus A319 aircraft. The inaugural flight, which took place on July 28, received a warm reception from local residents and provincial officials.

Khanlari noted that the recent visit of Iran’s President to the Republic of Azerbaijan and the emphasis on expanding bilateral cooperation were key motivations behind the new service. He also cited the limited availability of land visas and the competitive pricing of the flight compared to similar routes as contributing factors.

In addition to the new Tabriz route, Iran Air currently operates direct flights from Tehran to Baku on Tuesdays and Thursdays.”Tehran-Baku”

“The enthusiastic reception of the first Tabriz-Baku flight confirms the strong potential for this route to foster economic and tourism growth between the two nations,” Khanlari said. “If this demand continues, we anticipate increasing the frequency of flights on this route.”

He concluded by expressing hope that with the continued expansion of this service and the addition of other high-demand routes in East Azerbaijan Province—an area with significant potential—Iran Air will play a meaningful role in advancing tourism, strengthening its position, and boosting regional cooperation.

Khanlari noted that the recent visit of Iran’s President to the Republic of Azerbaijan and the emphasis on expanding bilateral cooperation were key motivations behind the new service. He also cited the limited availability of land visas and the competitive pricing of the flight compared to similar routes as contributing factors.

In addition to the new Tabriz route, Iran Air currently operates direct flights from Tehran to Baku on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

“The enthusiastic reception of the first Tabriz-Baku flight confirms the strong potential for this route to foster economic and tourism growth between the two nations,” Khanlari said. “If this demand continues, we anticipate increasing the frequency of flights on this route.”

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The Baku Declaration—on results of the first trilateral meeting among Azerbaijan, Iran, and Russia on the development of Transport Corridor—was signed at the event.

The declaration was signed by Azerbaijan’s Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, Minister of Roads and Urban Development of Iran Rostam Ghasemi, and Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak.

The parties stressed the importance of creating a working group to address transport and transit issues and procedures through the territories of Azerbaijan, Russia, and Iran in the context of the development of the corridor and expressed the intention to hold the first meeting within a month. Moreover, the parties intend to prepare a draft agreement on the Resht-Astara railroad project within a month, and a document that welcomes the involvement of Iran’s Chabahar port in the corridor.

The foundation of the International North-South Transport Corridor was laid on the basis of an intergovernmental agreement signed between Russia, Iran, and India on September 12, 2000. In total, 13 countries have ratified the agreement, including Azerbaijan, India, Iran, Russia, Turkey, etc.

The purpose of creating a corridor is to reduce the delivery time of cargo from India to Russia, as well as to northern and western Europe. The delivery time on the current route is more than 6 weeks, it is expected to be reduced to 3 weeks via North-South Transport Corridor.

According to this declaration, the parties have expressed their willingness to cooperate in the assessment and study of infrastructure and transport possibilities in order to fully use this corridor. The parties emphasized the importance of creating a joint working group, and they plan to hold the first meeting in the next month.

In addition, the parties announced their intention to prepare an agreement on the Rasht-Astara railway project within a month, and to start respective negotiations by the end of the year.

In the meeting Iranian Minister Ghasemi called to create North-South Corridor Secretariat and said, “Our countries [Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia] will be able to reach an agreement on the development of transport potential, which will be beneficial to all the three parties. The agreements reached to date can be called special, we have a lot of work ahead of us. Iran is ready to take immediate measures to achieve the development of the North-South corridor.”

“Our countries play a key role in the region. They are working to diversify transport corridors. We are working to remove barriers and also use electronic systems, which facilitate the activities. It’s necessary to simplify the issuance of visas that are not related to the process of transit of goods. Undoubtedly, we see the need to create a secretariat for the North-South corridor and connect the railways of all three countries,” he added.

Meanwhile Azerbaijan’s Minister of Digital Development and Transport Nabiyev noted that the sides exchanged views on the development of international transport and transit corridors running through Azerbaijan and Iran, including the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC).

“We went over the establishment of a new road transport infrastructure in the inter-state border areas, as well as the efforts to be taken in this regard. Moreover, we talked about the construction of a highway bridge across Iran, linking the East Zangazur economic region and Azerbaijan’s Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, as well as the road bridge over the Astarachay river between the two countries,” Nabiyev stated.

Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran intend to build a single railway network, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Novak said during the event.

“The working group on the development of the international North-South corridor was created by the heads of our countries and its development is very important for trilateral cooperation. During the talks between the presidents of Azerbaijan and Russia, the parties expressed their readiness to discuss the development of Rasht-Astara, as well as the North-South,” Novak noted.

According to him, Russia is ready for the productive trilateral cooperation.

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In his visit to Azeri capital Baku on Thursday, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Rostam Ghasemi said that transit of Azerbaijan’s fleet from Iranian land and territory to Nakhichevan is the main aim of his visit to Azerbaijan.

It is hoped that the two countries of Iran and Azerbaijan would witness signing and sealing agreements and Memoranda of Understanding (MoUs) in 15th Iran-Azerbaijan Joint Economic Commission, Ghasemi emphasized.

He announced the agreement to hand over several projects to Iran by the Republic of Azerbaijan during the visit and stated, “It is planned that Azerbaijani trucks will cross Iranian land and territory for transiting towards Nakhchivan.”

Elsewhere in his remarks, Ghasemi said that officials of the two countries will discuss enhancing bilateral ties in the fields of energy, industry, agriculture and exchange of goods between Tehran and Baku.

Minister of Roads and Urban Development is also scheduled to hold talks with Azeri side on re-launching Nakhichevan-Mashhad train. Improving cooperation between Iran and Azerbaijan in the field of road transportation with more than 70,000 trucks and re-launch of the Nakhichevan-Mashhad-Nakhichevan passenger train will also be the main topic of discussion between officials of the two countries.

During his visit to Azerbaijan, Rostam Ghasemi will emphasize the need to resume activities of regular bilateral passenger services by fully observing of health protocols and guidelines due to the spread of COVID-19.

Pursuing the Astatachay bridge construction project, completion of Astara railway dock project and Rasht-Astara railway project as part of the north-south corridor are other topics of discussion between Iranian Roads Minister and Azeri officials.

In addition, officials of the two countries will also discuss the development of mutual cooperation in the field of Ro-Ro shipping, shipbuilding and launch of joint container shipping lines, etc.

The post Tehran, Baku Stress Broadening Transit Cooperation appeared first on Iran News Daily.

Iran and the Republic of Azerbaijan share, to a large extent, the same history, religion, and culture.

Besides historical and cultural commonalities of the two countries, Iran recognized Azerbaijan’s independence in 1991, and diplomatic relations between the two countries were established in 1992. Both countries are full members of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO) and the organization of Islamic Cooperation(OIC).

Commonalities and joint interests of the two countries have functioned as the driving engine of the two countries’ ties. Relations between the two neighboring countries have gradually but significantly improved since 2013.

Nowadays after the liberation of the occupied territories of Azerbaijan, a new chapter is going to be opened in the relation of all regional countries, particularly between Tehran and Baku.

During a visit to the Republic of Azerbaijan organized by GJC, a correspondent of Mehr News agency reached out to Tural Ganjaliyev, a member of Azerbaijan’s parliament and head of the Azerbaijani community in Azerbaijan’s Upper Karabakh region to discuss Tehran-Baku relation in the post-Karabakh war.

He noted that Azerbaijan is very keen on cooperation with all counties regarding the reconstruction process of the Karabakh region after the liberation of the region.

Referring to the liberation of some parts of Iran and Azerbaijan border areas which were under long-term occupation, Azeri Parliamentarian said that besides Karabakh Azeri side wants full-scale cooperation with Iran in reconstructing border areas in order to achieve more positive results.

He stressed, “Iran has always been our good neighbor and partner and we enjoy good cultural and historical commonalities, so we would like to see Iranian government and companies’ participation in the reconstruction of Karabakh.

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Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif and his Iraqi counterpart Mohamed Ali Alhakim meet on the sidelines of a ministerial meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) in the Republic of Azerbaijan’s capital Baku.

In the Baku meeting, the two senior diplomats discussed the latest developments in Tehran-Baghdad relations, regional issues, particularly the situation in northern Syria, Lebanon and Yemen, the most recent developments in the Persian Gulf, Iran’s initiative for regional peace, known as the Hormuz Peace Endeavor (HOPE), as well as the other issues of mutual interest.

The ministerial meeting is being held on Wednesday and Thursday, ahead of the 18th Summit of the Non-Aligned Movement.

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani will attend the 18th NAM Summit, slated to begin on Friday in the Azeri capital.

The Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) is a forum of 120 developing world states that are not formally aligned with or against any major power bloc. After the United Nations, it is the largest grouping of states worldwide.

Although many of the Non-Aligned Movement’s members were actually quite closely aligned with one or another of the superpowers, the movement still maintained cohesion throughout the Cold War, even despite several conflicts between members which also threatened the movement.

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