BRI winning hearts and minds in Azerbaijan

Between Europe and Asia

As Azerbaijan has a favorable political and geographic location, the country aims to become a transport hub connecting Europe and Asia under the framework of the Belt and Road Initiative. "The point of the transportation network is to integrate it with the original countries," Hajiyev said, adding Azerbaijan has built a network of transportation including seaports, airports, railways and land roads.

"15,000 kilometers of land roads have been built in the past couple of years, and the country also constructed one of the biggest seaports in the Caspian Sea," Hajiyev said, adding all these are important pillars of the ancient Silk Road. Besides infrastructure construction such as transportation hubs, Azerbaijan is working on information communication technology lines to build a modern Silk Road.

The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway became operational on Oct 30, 2017, and aims to complete a transport corridor linking Azerbaijan to Turkey and Central Asia and China to Europe by rail. "It works as a major exporter and middle corridor under the Belt and Road Initiative, and Azerbaijan is also working on the East-West line and North-South Line, linking the railway systems of Iran and Russia."