Tajikistan is studying the possibility of increasing freight traffic through the ports of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan bypassing Turkmenistan, reports the information site Asia Plus .
Nematullo Hikmatullozoda, Minister of Economic Development and Trade of Tajikistan, has recently met with Taleh Ziyadov, Director General of the Baku Sea Port, as part of his visit to Azerbaijan .
As the newspaper writes, the reason for this was the fact that from February of this year, Turkmenistan, for unclear reasons, does not allow Tajik wagons into its territory.
In this regard, transportation of part of the Tajik cargo to the Middle East or goods imported from this region have been carried out for almost two months via the Caspian Sea, through the ports of Baku (Azerbaijan) and Aktau (Kazakhstan).
According to the Tajik transport departments, Turkmenistan has allowed wagons and cars with Tajik cargo to leave its territory, but the entry ban is still in effect.
The likely reason for the ban is the discontent of Turkmenistan with the fact that Tajikistan has not yet begun to lay the Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Tajikistan railway (TAT).
The Turkmen side completed the construction of its site in 2016 and began laying the Afghan section, but Tajikistan has been delaying the start of construction due to lack of financial resources, as well as due to the resumption of railway communication with Uzbekistan.
Recall that in September 2018, the Foreign Ministry of Turkmenistan expressed incomprehension after the Ambassador of Tajikistan to Uzbekistan announced the suspension of the TAT railway project. Later, the Ministry of Transport of Tajikistan stated that they did not refuse TAT, but now this branch is considered as a spare .
Source: Chronicles of Turkmenistan