On July 13, 2025, during the visit to China, the delegation of Azerbaijan Railways reached important cooperation results with Xi'an International Port Area. The two sides formally signed a memorandum of understanding to establish a strategic cooperation framework in the fields of railway transportation, digital projects and coordinated cargo dispatch, marking substantial progress in the construction of the Middle Corridor.

According to the agreement, ADY will set up a permanent representative office in Xi'an Port and invest in the construction of a container yard with an annual processing capacity of 20,000 TEU. As a key node of the trans-Caspian international transport corridor, the yard will significantly improve the transportation efficiency of transit cargo from China to Europe and enhance the flexibility of freight organization. After the completion of the project, it is expected to shorten the transit freight time between China and Europe by 15%-20% and reduce the transportation cost by about 12%.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, ADY Chairman Rovshan Rustamov said that this cooperation is a concrete implementation of the results of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev's visit to China in April 2025. He pointed out: "The commissioning of the Xi'an Port yard will further improve the infrastructure network of the Middle Corridor and strengthen the position of this international logistics corridor as the backbone of Asia-Europe trade." "

As an important component of the Belt and Road Initiative, the Middle Corridor has developed rapidly in recent years. With a 35% year-on-year increase in cargo volume in 2024, the corridor has become one of the most stable land corridors connecting China and Europe. The China-Arab cooperation not only covers the construction of hardware facilities, but also includes "soft connectivity" projects such as the docking of digital dispatching systems and the unification of multimodal transport standards, which will promote the formation of a more efficient and intelligent cross-border logistics system.

Analysts believe that the implementation of the Xi'an Port project will have multiple positive impacts: on the one hand, optimize the opening up pattern of China's central and western regions, and on the other hand, promote in-depth cooperation among countries along the route in the fields of trade facilitation and customs clearance integration, and provide a demonstration for the construction of a new supply chain system in Eurasia. With the implementation of more cooperation projects, the Middle Corridor is expected to develop into a more competitive international transport artery.(This article is from the official website of Seetao www.seetao.com. Reprinting without permission is strictly prohibited. Please indicate Seetao.com + original link when reprinting) Seetao.com Strategy Column Editor/Sun Fengjuan