Eurasian logistics without Azerbaijan? An untenable myth

According to statistics, in the first ten months of 2025, Azerbaijan Railways increased the reception of block trains by 32 percent. 317 block trains were accepted, including 119 transit trains. 112,608 TEU (a conventional unit of measurement equal to the volume of one 20-foot container) were transported, which is about 18 percent higher than last year's figure. This is good news, indicating that the Middle Corridor is operating flawlessly, and its railway segment, the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars corridor, which was predicted to go bankrupt, is increasing its demand. The North-South corridor is also expected to become more active. The Russian side is making every effort to do this. According to Russian media, the board of Russian Railways (RZD) has extended for the next year the previously introduced discounts for the transportation of a wide range of goods along the North-South route, including its western branch running through Azerbaijan. Of course, we are most interested in discounts for Azerbaijani transit. Discounts of up to 50 percent will be provided for the transportation of a number of export cargoes through the Samur border crossing with further passage through the Azerbaijani-Iranian Astara border crossing. Discounts of 20.4 percent will remain for export-import shipments in refrigerated containers to Astara station (Azerbaijan) through the Samur border crossing (and in the opposite direction). Ferrous metal carriers passing through the Samur border crossing on the border with Azerbaijan and then through the Boyuk-Kasik-Gardabani border crossing on the Azerbaijani-Georgian border will pay 50 percent less. In the latter case, as we can see, North-South smoothly turns into West-East. Discounts are a stimulating measure for the growth of interest in this route. Similar measures have been introduced by the Russian side for the MTK North-South eastern route from Russia to Iran via Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The Russian side introduced additional discounts for transportation along the western route of the corridor in June of this year. Transportation of coal, mineral and chemical fertilizers, and ferrous metals fell under additional discounts. Russian media recalled that in 2024, Russia and Azerbaijan agreed to attract additional cargo to the Azerbaijani railway network so that a sufficient cargo base would be formed at the time of Iran's completion of the Rasht-Astara road. Azerbaijan is interested in the development of the international North-South transport corridor, just as it is interested in the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TMTM, Middle Corridor) and communications through Zangezur. The more transport and logistics routes there are, the more opportunities there are. Official Baku has repeatedly stressed that the corridors are not competitors, but complement each In a recent interview with the Al Arabiya channel, President Ilham Aliyev stated that the Zangezur corridor will be not only an East-West transport corridor, but also a North-South transport corridor. "Instead of one North-South route from Russia to Iran through Azerbaijan, we will have another one - from Russia to Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nakhchivan and further to Iran. So, I think this will be a winning situation for the entire region, and there will be no losers here," the head of state said. Speaking at the SCO+ meeting in Tianjin, China, on September 1, the President noted that the East-West and North-South corridors had opened up new economic and transport prospects. "I am confident that the Zangezur Corridor will soon become another important segment of the Middle Corridor, as well as the North-South corridor, which will strengthen peace, multilateral partnership and benefit all close and distant neighbors of Azerbaijan to the east, west, north and south of our borders." When the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway opened, Baku issued an official statement that the BTK and the North-South did not compete with each other, but were complementary projects. In Russia, they also don't want to talk about competition between corridors. The Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation, Sergei Shoigu, recently, answering questions from journalists, said: The Zangezur corridor and the North-South will not compete with each other. Both routes, he believes, are of strategic importance and complement each other. "I believe that both roads not only have the right to exist, they are needed in order for Azerbaijan to connect with its regions, to create transport corridors for trade between the countries," Shoigu said, adding that any road is always a good thing. Azerbaijan has never positioned its projects as competing with anyone else. Neither the BTK, nor the Southern Gas Corridor, nor other projects initiated by Baku are being implemented to compete with their neighbors and pull the logistical blanket over themselves. On the contrary, Azerbaijan itself always welcomes the expansion of logistics opportunities in the Eurasian Recently, traffic was opened along the eastern branch of the North-South corridor, which involves Azerbaijan's fraternal Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan. The train with 62 containers left Moscow and passed through these countries to Iran. From the Iranian dry port of Aprin, cargo will be sent to China or Bandar Abbas, and from there to India. Some Russian media presented this news in a somewhat strange way, presenting it as a demonstration of the "farewell" to the western North-South route. They say the MTK will bypass Azerbaijan because it has behaved badly and Russia no longer needs it for transportation to Iran. The authors of these opuses are clearly not aware of the real state of affairs and have no idea what is really happening in this area. To be honest, I was surprised by such an unprofessional approach from seemingly serious publications. The process is underway, and so far no one has announced that it will be Work is currently underway to complete the western route, namely, the construction of the missing railway section in Iran, which will provide seamless rail transit from Russia to the Persian Gulf and India. The Russian side is involved in the project, which the journalists of the above-mentioned publications should have known about. Iran has transferred a plot of land to a Russian company where construction will be carried out. By March next year, the Iranian side plans to complete the purchase of land along the corridor route from the population, after which work will begin. After a meeting of representatives of the authorities of Azerbaijan, Russia and Iran held in Baku in mid-October, Russian media reported that the Iranian side had changed the route of the projected Rasht-Astara line. The changes occurred during land acquisition activities, and this is standard practice for such projects, Nikolai Shestakov, a representative of the Ministry of Transport, told reporters. According to him, the changes will not affect the cost of the project. Some technical solutions related to the transfer of artificial structures - bridges, overpasses, overpasses and other objects - can only change. It should be noted that Iran has exempted the project from taxes and fees. The total cost of the project is 1.3 billion rubles. euros, and almost 82 percent of this amount, according to the agreement between Moscow and Tehran, will be provided by the Russian side in the form of a state loan. The western route of the MTK North-South has one very important advantage - the geography and railway infrastructure of Azerbaijan make it possible to combine transportation with their access to the West-East route. It is this route that the Russian side is already using to transport goods by rail to Turkiye and Armenia. The eastern route has no such advantage. There are never too many roads. Logistics and politics are talking about this. Cargo transportation in Eurasia is so large that it is enough for everyone.