Turkmenistan took steps to expand economic ties with Iran this week, completing the upgrade of a customs checkpoint on the border with its neighbor to the south and hosting an Iranian cabinet minister.
The modernization of the Sarahs Autoyollary customs post at the Turkmen-Iranian border follows upgrades earlier this year at the Artyk post, also on the border with Iran, and the Garabogaz checkpoint, on the northern border with Kazakhstan, according to Turkmenistan’s State Customs Service. It said improvements to the Sarahs Autoyollary post, which is located at “the intersection of several international transport corridors,” include renovated buildings and a digital monitoring system that will help agents process vehicles and goods faster and more reliably.
Meanwhile, Turkmen President Serdar Berdimuhamedov discussed the expansion of Turkmen-Iranian trade in a meeting with Farzaneh Sadegh, Iran’s roads and urban development minister, in Ashgabat on Monday, Turkmenistan’s state media reported. The Iranian ministry said Sadegh and top Turkmen officials discussed joint projects in transportation, energy, electricity, and infrastructure development.
Iran is a significant economic partner for Turkmenistan and other Central Asian countries that are trying to diversify and expand trade corridors to foreign markets, although Iran’s conflict with the United States has highlighted the vulnerability of transit through Iranian territory. Earlier this month, Iranian officials alleged that a U.S. strike hit a railway bridge on a northern Iranian line crossing into Turkmenistan, although there was no independent confirmation. Iran later said it had repaired the tracks and trains were running again.
On Monday, Turkmenistan criticized an attack on an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea that the Iranian government blamed on Ukraine, which has acknowledged strikes on vessels in the sea that were allegedly carrying military cargo linked to Iran and Russia. The Caspian Sea is critical to Turkmenistan’s ambition to play a larger role in the Middle Corridor, a trade network linking Asia and Europe via Central Asia and the Caucasus.
