The protocol, with respect to accelerating the construction of the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, is signed in Istanbul. 

The respective document was authorized on Friday, during the trilateral talks among the transport ministers of Georgia, Turkey, and Azerbaijan. 

Ziya Mammadov, the Azerbaijani Minister of Transportation, stated that, “the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars project is not only economic, but it is strategic, as well.”  

“We are opening a new transport corridor that will connect Europe with Asia,” he added.

In his turn, Turkey’s Transport and Telecommunication Minister, Binali Yildirim, informed that the main objective of this project is to launch test passenger-transportation services within the current year.

Once the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway is built, the Kars-Nakhichevan railway project will get underway, Gruzia Online news agency of Georgia reports.