Russia To Expand Rail, Energy Cooperation with Iran

Russian Railways President Vladimir Yakunin will be visiting Iran in the autumn, to sign an agreement to construct a key railway link in the proposed International North-South transport corridor, (INSTC), Voice of Russia reported yesterday. The corridor project, under discussion among Russia, Azerbaijan, Iran, India, and other nations of the region since 2000, will eventually link St Petersburg with Bandar-Abbas, the Iranian port on the Persian Gulf. A consortium, in which Russian Railways (RZD) will take a lead role, is being considered to construct necessary new rail lines between Iran and Azerbaijan along the Caspian Sea.

During World War II, the Trans-Iranian railway from the then-Shapur (now Bandar Khomeini) port at the far northern end of the Persian Gulf, was a key transport link to get U.S. Lend Lease supplies to the Soviet Union. Bandar Abbas, which has since become the most important Iranian Gulf port, lies much farther south, and was linked to the Iranian rail system in the late 1990s.

Russian Energy Minister Sergey Shmatko met with his visiting Iranian counterpart Masud Mir-Kazemi in Moscow July 14, to discuss gas, oil, and civilian nuclear cooperation, called the INSTC a crucial transport corridor between the nations, VOR reported.

Earlier, on July 6, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin proposed integrating the North Caucasus area of Russia into the project, as part of a new strategy to develop the regions backward economy. "We see a real perspective of building the North Caucasus into a North-South international transit corridor that would link Russia and Europe with the Persian Gulf and Central Asian states," Putin told a United Russia party conference on the region, Novosti reported.