Russia Invites Iran, Azerbaijan to Create INSTC Logistical Operator 

Russia has invited Azerbaijan and Iran to create a logistical operator for the western route of the International North-South Transportation Corridor, Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Andrei Belousov said at the 15th Verona Eurasian Economic Forum on Friday.
"Today, the historically established transport infrastructure of both Russia and other countries, which was primarily formed on the basis of the principle of parallels; in other words, on the East-West horizon, is already ceasing to meet the global trends and the realities we are facing. The meridian routes, the North-South route in the first place, are starting to play a key role today," Belousov was quoted as saying by Interfax.
“The North-South route, with its access to the Persian Gulf states, India, China and Africa, could become an actual competitor to the Suez Canal in the future,” he said.
"The development of the corridor today depends to a decisive degree on Russia's interaction with the Republic of Azerbaijan and our countries' interactions with Iran. We expect that the amount of Russian cargo via all three arms of the INSTC will increase nearly twofold by 2030 from the current 17 to 30 million tons. But we see the main prospect, which will account for more than half of the growth, first and foremost in the western route via Azerbaijan." 
The Russian deputy prime minister called for considering the possibility of creating a joint operator from the three countries, Russia, Azerbaijan and Iran, along the entire western route to ensure end-to-end transport service and a high level of logistical services, using the United Transport and Logistics Company operator created by Russian Railways in cooperation with the national railroad companies of Kazakhstan and Belarus as an example.
"Russia proposes considering the possibility of launching such service taking into account that the operator would also perform shipping functions, contract for transportation, transshipment in sea ports, and provide customs and other support to transportation," Belousov said.
Russian Deputy Transport Minister Valentin Ivanov noted that in relation to the rail infrastructure, the ministry believes it would be feasible to create a joint logistical operator so that all issues dealing with transit via the territories of Azerbaijan, Iran and Russia could be addressed based on the principles of all services in one place and resolved promptly and at high standards without any delays for shippers' convenience.
"We believe that the creation of this logistical operator needs to be reflected in our trilateral intergovernmental agreement. We're already working on it with our colleagues from Azerbaijan and have drafted a concept of the trilateral agreement with Iran, and we're coordinating it," he added.

From Mumbai to Helsinki

INSTC is a major transit route designed to facilitate the transportation of goods from Mumbai in India to Helsinki in Finland, using Iranian ports and railroads, which the Islamic Republic plans to connect to those of Azerbaijan and Russia. 
The corridor connects Iran with Russia’s Baltic ports and give Russia rail connectivity to both the Persian Gulf and the Indian rail network.
This means goods can be carried from Mumbai to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas and further to Baku. They could then pass across the Russian border into Astrakhan before proceeding to Moscow and St. Petersburg, before entering Europe.
INSTC would substantially cut the travel time for everything from Asian consumer goods to Central Eurasia’s natural resources to advanced European exports.
Armenia and Iran are implementing projects of regional significance, including the geopolitically important project connecting the Persian Gulf to the Black Sea.
Iran and Russia have agreed on details of their plan to transit 10 million tons of goods along the International North-South Transportation Corridor.
The agreement was made during a meeting of the two sides’ transportation officials in Moscow on June 28 and 29.
IRISL earlier piloted the multimodal transit of cargo along INSTC, carrying goods from Russia to India, according to the head of Solyanka Port in Russia’s city of Astrakhan.
“The consignments are two 40-feet containers of wood laminates weighing a total of 41 tons. The containers were loaded at St. Petersburg and are heading toward Astrakhan where they will be loaded again at Solyanka Port. They will then traverse the Caspian Sea to reach Iran’s Anzali Port where they are scheduled to be transported to Bandar Abbas port city in the south of the country via trucks. The two containers will then be dispatched to Jawaharlal Nehru, India’s largest container port,” Dariush Jamali was also quoted as saying by IRNA.
The official estimated that the transit of this first trial consignment, as part of collaboration between the Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line Group’s representative logistic companies in Russia and India, would take less than 25 days.
“The shipments will be using one-way bill along their journey. We hope that this first transit on INSTC will lead to considerable revenues and a boost in transit and logistics in Iran, Russia and India,” he said.
Solyanka is one of the 15 ports located in Astrakhan’s Economic zone and is considered the busiest of them all. Some 53% of Solyanka Port’s shares belong to Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Line Group.  
The Russian port of Astrakhan is a hub for commercial activities of nearly 200 Iranian firms, making the port the largest center of Iranians’ economic activities in Russia.

Baku Declaration

Iran, Azerbaijan and Russia signed a declaration at the end of the first trilateral meeting on INSTC development in Baku last month.
The signatories were Azerbaijani Deputy Prime Minister Shahin Mustafayev, his Russian counterpart Alexander Novak and Iran’s Roads Minister Rostam Qasemi, Interfax reported.
The parties concerned said they would draft an agreement on building the Rasht-Astara railroad in the Iranian territory within a month and would start to discuss project details by the end of this year.
They declared the readiness for cooperation to fully unlock the transport potential of the corridor and thus achieve the goal of 30 million tons of cargo to be annually transported via the three states by 2030.
There is also an agreement to set up a joint working group to facilitate transit procedures. The group will hold its inaugural meeting within a month.

Decision on Rasht-Astara Railroad Expected

Russian Railways is expecting a speedy decision on completing a section of the Rasht-Astara railroad in Iran, Sergei Pavlov, the first deputy head of the company, said on Friday during the Made in Russia 2022 international export forum.
"Rasht-Astara is a serious obstacle today for connecting the railroad [North-South ITC] into a single network," Pavlov said, noting that the RZD-Logistics subsidiary is currently using the route for multimodal transportation, Interfax reported.
"We are currently holding very intensive negotiations with the Iranian side and with the Azerbaijani side in order to launch the route," Pavlov said.
"I am certain that we will be able to hear positive news very soon, because all the participants, all the governments and the ministries of transportation and rail organizations are working toward the single goal of launching the railroad as soon as possible."