South Caucasus Countries Discuss Regional Railway

Visiting Russian Transport Minister Igor Levitin will discuss the issue of restoring the Georgian-Russian railway link via Abkhazia with the Georgian leadership.

Armenian and Azerbaijani governmental delegations are also expected to join the talks in Tbilisi on January 10.

Last November, Russian Transport Minister, who visited Georgia and Armenia, proposed that the countries of the South Caucasus set up a joint Russian-Georgian-Armenian-Azerbaijani company which would restore traffic on the Trans-Caucasus Railway, which ceased functioning after conflicts in Abkhazia and Nagorno-Karabakh in the early 90s.

The railway, which stretched more than 2,300 kilometers during Soviet times, connected Black Sea ports with central Russia, operated passenger services and handled more than 15 million tons of transit cargo per year, according to the Russian English-language daily The Moscow Times.

?It is not a simple issue, I mean, we do not face only technical problems related to restoration of the railway. It is a comprehensive and difficult political issue,? Lexo Alexishvili, the Georgian Economy Minister, said.
 
For the past decade the Georgian government?s policy has always linked the issue of restoring the railway via Abkhazia to the issue of returning the internally displaced persons to the breakaway region.

There are signs that the Georgian government is now ready to soften its position, but the final shape of the Tbilisi?s policy towards the issue has yet to manifest.

?If Georgian custom officers will be deployed at the Georgian-Russian border [referring to the Abkhaz section of the border] then I see no problem in restoring the railway connection,? Kakha Bendukidze, the State Minister for Economic Reform Issues, told reporters on January 9.