A new transport corridor to connect China to Europe via Iran gets the greenlight:Iran’s Deputy Roads and Urban Development Minister Shahriar Afandizadeh, along with the transport ministers and representatives of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), inked an agreement to establish a new transport corridor from China to Europe via Iran, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, Iran’s state-aligned Tasnim news agency reports. The agreement was inked at the 12th meeting of Transport Ministers of the ECO in Tashkent, Uzbekistan. The value of the investment and timeline have not been revealed.

Who are the ECO members? Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Iran, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Turkey, Turkmenistan, and Uzbekistan, according to the group’s website.

The details: The agreement involves the unification of tariffs, transport procedures, and border processes, Tasnim writes.

What else was on the agenda? The members also discussed the need for financing from the Asian Development Bank for infrastructure projects in the ECO region, completing missing rail and road links, as well as the need to strengthen the Islamabad-Tehran-Istanbul and Almaty-Tehran-Istanbul regional corridors, the news agency added.

We knew this was coming: The ECO members and China discussed last month reaching an agreement to create the transport corridor from China to Europe.

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