Business news

Russia’s Astrakhan Oblast ready to ramp up Belarusian cargo transshipment through its ports

MINSK, 2 May (BelTA) - Astrakhan Oblast is ready to increase the volume of transshipment of Belarusian cargoes through its ports, Governor of Russia’s Astrakhan Oblast Igor Babushkin said at a meeting with Belarusian President Aleksandr Lukashenko in Minsk on 2 May, BelTA learned.

“We have built cargo transit routes through the ports of Astrakhan Oblast. Today our ports have a capacity to handle 16 million tonnes of cargo. Our port operators have modernized their capacities to transship cargo from Belarus to Southeast Asia and the Persian Gulf. This is timber, paper, machinery, fertilizers. we are ready to ramp up the volume of cargo transshipment. The conditions for the growth of cargo transshipment are very clear, and we are discussing them within the framework of our joint working group,” the governor said.

Igor Babushkin said that on the instructions of the Russian president, conditions have been created for full loading of all vessels traveling through the Volga-Caspian Canal. Passing depths of 4.5 meters have been created, which allowed increasing cargo transit through the ports of Astrakhan to 6 million tonnes last year. “Such a result has not been seen for decades. This shows that the conditions for cargo transit towards the Caspian Sea and in the opposite direction re sufficient today,” the head of the region emphasized.

He also noted that the previous meeting with the Belarusian president in December 2021 gave an additional impetus to the development of relations between Russia’s Astrakhan Oblast and the Republic of Belarus. Back then the parties signed an agreement and a roadmap covering a wide range of areas for the development of cooperation. The parties maintain close cooperation in a number of avenues.

print version

make home page

add to bookmarks