Ilona Bērziņa, BNN
Cooperation with Kazakhstan and other Central Asian countries for Latvia is an alternative to Russian and Belarusian markets. For our sea ports and railways this is an opportunity to secure freight volumes, which would help put our infrastructure to work, BNN was told by Minister of Transport Jānis Vitenbergs.
Kazakhstan is actively looking for new cooperation partners in Western European countries to create a corridor for exports and imports. We should use Kazakhstan’s will to cooperate with the Baltic Region and Latvia, said the minister.
As BNN previously reported, Latvia’s transit and logistics sector has reached an agreement to promote cooperation with the Central Asian region for the development of an alternative corridor to connect TRACECA with Baltic and Scandinavian countries.
The first pilot shipments in the direction of Baltic and Scandinavian countries will be organised in the coming months.
Vitenbergs says Kazakhstan actively works to prevent circumvention of anti-Russian sanctions. For this purpose the country has developed guidelines for its state companies. As for previously voiced concerns about growth of imports of certain groups of goods, the minister, referencing what representatives of Kazakhstan said, many Kazakh companies have started looking for suppliers in European countries after dropping cooperation with Russia. «Kazakhstan sells these goods to other countries of the Central Asian region. There are many companies involved in this business, including ones from Latvia. We carefully follow the situation to ensure sanctions imposed against Russia are not breached of circumvented, and businesses are informed of the consequences,» stresses the minister.
Latvian Minister of Transport also said Kazakhstan is a strategically important transit partner for Latvia with high future potential. This much is clear, considering this summer there will be a forum in Latvia, which representatives of Central Asian countries plan to attend.