MINSK , December 26The Ambassador of Belarus to the Russian Federation Dmitry Krutoy said that the volume of transshipment of Belarusian export cargo through Russian ports in 2023 will be about 15 million tons.
“Twenty Russian ports are involved in the transshipment of domestic export cargo. The total volume of transshipment at the end of the year will be about 15 million tons. At the peak of 2019, using the infrastructure of the Baltic states and the ports of Ukraine, there were 18.8 million tons. That is, another year or two, and we will be able to replace our peak volume with Russian port infrastructure,” the Belta agency quotes Krutoy as saying.
According to him, in the field of transport and logistics there are a number of investment programs that have been agreed upon with the Russian side. “We must successfully implement them in two to three years,” the diplomat said.
According to the ambassador, the President of Belarus set the task for the leadership of the transport industry and railways to prepare information on these programs for the next meeting of the Supreme State Council of the Union State. “Perhaps the presidents will sign them as a planned task. Because investment money, investment resources have all been allocated for this,” Krutoy added.
The Ambassador noted that President of Belarus Alexander Lukashenko instructed to pay special attention to the North-South transport corridor project within the framework of the Eurasian Economic Union. The Belarusian sees great potential in this project, Krutoy explained.
«Today, among the EAEU countries, of course, Russia and Kazakhstan play the main role. Azerbaijan is actively working within the framework of the agreement on a free trade zone. Naturally, Iranian partners will be involved. And he (Lukashenko — ed.) sees in this corridor «huge potential. Considering that this is actually a personal project of the President of Russia…, he (Lukashenko — ed.) believes that we should be more actively involved in at least those investment decisions that have already been made,» the ambassador added.