Lithuania requests Turkish partnership

BURSA - Anatolia News Agency

Lithuania’s ambassador for transportation Nauduzas stands in front of a map showing the route of the Viking international freight transportation project. AA photo

If Turkey were included in the Viking international freight transportation project, there could be container transport from the port of Illichivsk to Samsun on Turkey’s Black Sea coast and on to Istanbul, Lithuania’s ambassador for energy and transportation issues, Vytautas Nauduzas, has said.

“Samsun could really become an important center for the Middle East,” Nauduzas said at a joint press conference with Lithuanian ambassador to Turkey Jolanda Kriskovieciene in Bursa March 30 to explain the Viking project.

Moldova and Georgia are also involved in the project, which envisions a 734-kilometer rail line between the Ukraine’s Black Sea port of Klaipeda and Lithuania’s Baltic Sea port of İllichivsk. Transport via truck from Turkey to Iran takes five to seven days, but could take as little as two to three days by train, Nauduzas said.

“Turkey provides a wealth of opportunity for a rail line, but would need to make an investment of $7.5 billion to get on board,” Nauduzas said, adding that Azerbaijan would also soon be joining the venture.