Ahmadinejad felicitates Turkmen president

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in a phone conversation with his Turkmen counterpart Gurbanguly Berdimuhamedov congratulated him on the inauguration of the Turkmen part of a joint railway project which will connect the rail networks of Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan. During the phone conversation on Monday, Ahmadinejad underlined that inauguration of the Turkmen part of the railway, which is also known as North-South railroad, can further consolidate and expand the ties between Tehran and Ashgabat. The Iranian and Turkmen presidents also stressed their determination to support reciprocal friendly relations, and said the growing ties between the two countries have enhanced the level of their energy, trade, economic, transportation and communications interactions. The joint railway network, dubbed as the Caspian Sea Eastern Rail Corridor, is more than 900 kilometers in length, including 140 kilometers in Kazakhstan, 700 kilometers in Turkmenistan, and 90 kilometers in Iran. Earlier this month, Iranian Minister of Road and Urbanization Ali Nikzad underlined that the joint railway connecting national networks of Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan will become operational soon. The railway will link Iran to Turkmenistan and then to Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan and will connect the CIS countries with the Indian Ocean and high seas and the Persian Gulf littoral states. The primary agreement on the construction of the rail link among Iran, Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan was signed between presidents of Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan in April 2007 in the city of Turkmenbashi and its final agreement was signed in a summit meeting in Tehran in September of the same year by the three presidents. The railway facilitates transportation of goods from the Central Asian countries to the Persian Gulf.