Turkish FM calls Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway a ‘window to Europe’

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway is a “window to Europe” for Asia, Foreign Minister of Turkey Mevlut Cavusoglu was cited as saying by the Turkish media, Trend.az reports.

Cavusoglu said that that BTK is one of the most important transport projects.

“The BTK will facilitate the process of transporting goods from China to Europe,” he said.

On October 30, 2017, a solemn ceremony on the occasion of the opening of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway was held at the Baku International Sea Trade Port.

The BTK railway is built based on the Azerbaijani-Georgian-Turkish intergovernmental agreement.

At the initial stage, the volume of freight traffic will be at the level of 6.5 million tons of cargo, and up to one million passengers will be transported through this railway, Trend.az reports.

The BTK can much reduce the time of delivery of goods from China to Europe with the use of the route.

At the opening ceremony in Baku, Georgia’s then Prime Minister Giorgi Kvirikashvili stated that the railway would “change the current economic reality, providing new economic opportunities in the region and beyond.”

“It can be openly said that a new Eurasian bridge has been found that will connect not only our economies but also our citizens and improve and boost their welfare,” Kvirikashvili stated.

He said that when the region and the world faced a range of challenges, it was no surprise that the opening of the BTK railway attracted much attention.