Russian Deputy PM Alexey Overchuk today announced that a deal to restore a long-closed railway link between Armenia and Azerbaijan will soon be announced.

"Today we have come very close to saying that we can restore railway communication between the western regions of Azerbaijan and Nakhichevan. At the same time, Armenia also gets the opportunity to unblock and move through Nakhichevan, through Azerbaijan to Russia, to other countries of the EAEU,” Overchuk told reporters in Moscow according to TASS. 

Overchuk and his Armenian and Azerbaijan counterparts head a working group tasked with reopening transportation links in the South Caucasus following the 2020 Karabakh war.

The 340 km rail corridor, closed since the first war between Armenia and Azerbaijan in the late 1980s and early 1990s, runs southeast from Yeraskh in Armenia to Julfa in Azerbaijan’s Nakhijeav exclave, which is on the border with Iran. From there it runs eastwards to Meghri in Armenia, before crossing back into Azeribaijan to reach Horadiz, where it meets Azerbaijan Railways’ operational main line to Baku. There is a connection with the Iranian network at the Julfa/Jolfa border crossing, from where trains could in future run to and from Tabriz and Tehran.

Overchuk said passport and customs controls will be established at the rail border.

Photo: Robin Fabbro/OC Media.