In 2024, former Kazakh Minister of Transport Marat Karabayev met with his Latvian counterpart Kaspars Briskens. Both representatives signed a bilateral Memorandum on the development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR).
This suggests the prospects for Latvia of joining the route from China to Europe, bypassing Russia.
Traditionally, cargo from Central Asia, which was reloaded in Latvian ports, was delivered to the Baltic country by rail through the territory of Russia. Given the current realities around Ukraine, there is no need to talk about the prospect of unblocking rail traffic through Russia to Latvia in the same volumes.
After the outbreak of war in Ukraine, about 2.0 million tons of cargo were transported along the Russia-Latvia route (the largest among EU countries) in 2023. In 2022, about 1.8 million tons.
For comparison, in 2019, the Latvian Railway (LZHD) transported about 41.5 million tons of cargo; in 2020, due to the coronavirus pandemic, the volume decreased by 41.9% to 24.11 million tons. In 2021, it dropped slightly further to 21.963 million tons. Nevertheless, statistics show that after the outbreak of the war in Ukraine, shipments from Russia to Latvia decreased almost tenfold.
Taking into account that many experts predict the protracted nature of the Ukrainian conflict, Latvia should look for alternative ways to deliver goods from Central Asia and China. It is no secret that most of the occupancy rates of Latvia’s major ports were goods and raw materials from Russia and the Central Asian states.
In this regard, it is obvious that the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is of urgent interest to the Baltic States.
Therefore, it is no coincidence that in 2024, Kazakhstan and Latvia for the first time signed a Memorandum on the joint development of TITR.
“Our countries are actively developing transit and transport cooperation. One of the significant aspects of cooperation is the permanent joint working group on transport. This group covers a wide range of issues in the field of rail, road, air transport, transit and logistics,” said Marat Karabayev.
According to the Kazakh ex-minister, today the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route has acquired a special role as an alternative to other routes. This is evidenced by a twofold increase in cargo transportation volumes by the end of 2023.
“In order to increase the capacity of TITR, as well as eliminate bottlenecks on the route, work is underway to improve infrastructure and terminal facilities, expand port facilities, increase rolling stock, remove administrative barriers and create favourable conditions for carriers that will increase TITR’s capacity to 10 million tons per year by 2025,” Karabaev noted then.
The head of the relevant ministry invited Latvian investors to jointly implement infrastructure projects.
“We are ready to strengthen cooperation in the field of transport and logistics to mutually increase the volume of transit cargo flows, establish and develop transport routes, and share best practices in the field of multimodal transportation and logistics processes,” he said.
To date, Latvia, along with Austria, Germany, Lithuania, Estonia and Hungary, have expressed interest in joining the TITR.
As part of the trip, the Kazakh delegation visited the Rail Baltica facility under construction and the Freeport of Riga. Also, during the working visit, Marat Karabayev spoke at the Kazakh-Latvian business forum on transport cooperation and held bilateral meetings with the management of the Freeport of Riga and representatives of Latvian business.
In turn, Riga is also showing interest in participating in the TITR. Thus, the Azerbaijani Trend agency writes that a source in the Latvian Foreign Ministry sees the need to expand the Trans-Caspian international transport route.
“The Trans-Caspian corridor has great potential for development, but there are still many institutional, physical and operational barriers to expanding the route’s capacity. One of the main limitations is the capacity of vessels in the Black and Caspian Seas. For the development of this alternative route, there is an obvious need to expand the capacity of this corridor,” the Latvian Foreign Ministry said.
The Latvian Foreign Ministry added that the current geopolitical situation should clearly contribute to this. It was noted that the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is an important alternative route in the Eurasian logistics chains connecting Central Asia with Europe, bypassing Russia.
“The traditional corridor from Asia to Europe through Russia and Belarus is now much more susceptible to the impact of geopolitical shocks and various security risks, including sanctions evasion during transit through Russia and Belarus to Central Asia,” the Riga City Council said.
Thus, most experts believe that Latvia’s connection to the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route is beneficial for the Baltic state, which is striving to maintain its position as a major transport hub in the Baltic. The queue remains for politicians who should speed up the signing of documents to reduce administrative barriers to business.
Photo by Rihards Sergis on Unsplash
