KAVKAZ-POTI FERRY LINK TO LIFT ARMENIA’S TRANSPORT BLOCKADE-IVANOV
ITAR-TASS News Agency, Russia
April 11, 2007 Wednesday
Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Sergei Ivanov considers it very
important to launch a ferry link between the Russian port of Kavkaz
and the Armenian port of Poti to resolve transport problems.
"The launch of a new ferry running en route Kavkaz-Poti that can
carry up to 50 cargo railway carriages helps to resolve one of the
key problems – Armenia’s transport blockade," Ivanov told a joint
news conference with participation of Armenian Prime Minister Serzh
Sarkisian on Wednesday. "The opening of the ferry link will allow to
partially cut the Gordian knot already now," he said.
"By late summer a second ferry will begin operating, which will
increase cargo turnover," he said. "There are also long-term programs
for the development of railway transport, but it is still early to
speak about them."
"Transport is a key problem in our relations, because all the rest
becomes senseless without transport," Ivanov said.
The agreement on opening the Kavkaz-Poti railway and ferry link was
signed by the then Georgian Prime Minister Zurab Zhvania and Russian
Transport Minister Igor Levitin back in January 2005.
The first ferry shipped 14 railway carriages full of corn in March
2005. Later the ferry made several passages and this link was
suspended soon.
Initially the ferry should have run between the ports twice or trice
a week.
The resumption of a ferry link is very important, as Russia and
Georgia have not had direct railway link since August 1992, when an
armed conflict broke in Georgia’s breakaway of Abkhazia.
Since then cargoes to Armenia that has no common border with Russia
have been delivered by motorways bypassing its neighbour of Georgia,
which resulted in transportation price hikes.