The Romanian government is reviewing a memorandum from the Ministry of Transport on the operationalization of the Black Sea–Caspian Sea route between Romania, Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan.
The Black Sea–Caspian Sea international transport route is a project launched by Romania and Turkmenistan in 2012, which aims to create a multimodal transport route (maritime/river and road/rail) between Central and Northern Europe and the South Caucasus and Central Asia/Asia-Pacific region, using, in a quadrilateral plan, the geographical contiguity of Romania (RO), Georgia (GE), the Republic of Azerbaijan (AZ) and Turkmenistan (TM), the facilities offered by the ports of Constanța (RO), Poti (GE), Batumi (GE), and Anaklia (GE) – under construction, Baku/Alat (AZ), Turkmenbashi (TM), and the potential offered by the direct connection between the Port of Constanța and the Danube River.
Milestones
- On March 4, 2019, a quadrilateral meeting of the foreign ministers of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Romania, and Turkmenistan was held in Bucharest with the aim of strengthening and intensifying economic cooperation between these countries. On this occasion, the foreign ministers of the four countries signed a Declaration (the Bucharest Declaration) as an expression of their joint commitment to developing the freight transport route between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and to operationalizing the project as soon as possible.
- On June 24, 2019, following the signing of the Declaration, a quadrilateral meeting of the Working Group at expert level from Romania, Georgia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, and Turkmenistan was held in Bucharest, dedicated to the operationalization of the freight transport route between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea. To this end, it was agreed to conclude an intergovernmental agreement between the signatories to the Bucharest Declaration.
- Negotiations took place between November 18, 2022, and February 10, 2025, in various formats (online and in person), both quadrilaterally and bilaterally, on the basis of the Romanian counterproposal to the agreement submitted by the Turkmen side at the end of 2019.
Purpose of the agreement
This is to regulate the general framework for organizing, carrying out, and ensuring the international transport of goods along the Black Sea-Caspian Sea International Transport Route.
International freight transport between the Contracting Parties may be carried out in accordance with the Agreement, using any mode of transport, including multimodal transport, in the following situations:
a) bilaterally, between the Contracting Parties;
b) in transit, across the territories of the Contracting Parties;
c) from/to a third state.
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