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Back in 2016, Iran put forward a regional initiative to expand the Persian Gulf–Black Sea International Transport and Transit Corridor, which, in addition to the Islamic Republic itself, involves Armenia, the Republic of Azerbaijan, Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece.
This multimodal corridor begins from the Gulf and southern Iran, heads northward across the country, and then proceeds to Armenia and/or Azerbaijan, from where it reaches the Georgian ports of Poti and Batumi in the Black Sea. From there, Roll on–Roll off (Ro-Ro) ships cross the Black Sea to Bulgarian ports (Burgas and Varna), after which cargo proceeds again by road to Greece and beyond in the European Union (Silk Road Briefing, April 21, 2017).
After four rounds of expert negotiations—in Tehran (2016), Sofia (2017), Tbilisi (2018) and again in Tehran (2019)—the fifth expert meeting on this corridor was hosted by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia, in Yerevan on, April 19, 2021. The Armenian and Iranian delegations attended the meeting in person, while representatives from Georgia, Bulgaria and Greece participated online (due to COVID-19) (Mehr News Agency, April 21). Although the Republic of Azerbaijan is also a member of this corridor, due to disputes with Armenia the Azerbaijani envoy did not attend the Yerevan meeting. Shortly afterward, on May 24, Iranian Minister of Roads and Urban Development Mohammed Eslami traveled to Armenia’s capital and reaffirmed Tehran’s wish to pursue what he described as mutually beneficial initiatives contributing to a deepening of economic ties, namely building up the trans-regional Persian Gulf–Black Sea transport corridor project (Armenpress, May 24).

Five major considerations explain Iran’s interest and support for this strategic transit corridor. First is Tehran’s approach to diversifying its communication routes linking up with neighboring countries. At its heart is a preference for “combined transportation”—that is, a combination of multi-modal sea, land and rail routes. In this regard, Iran intends to connect its ports located in the Oman Sea (Chabahar Port) and the Gulf (Bandar Abbas, Imam Khomeini and Khorramshahr ports) in the south of the country, to the ports located on the Caspian Sea (Amir Abad, Nowshahr, Anzali and Astara ports) in the north, via the Iranian rail network. The connection of the Gulf to the Black Sea follows the same rationale. In fact, this corridor will connect four key maritime basins: namely, 1) the Gulf and the Sea of ​​Oman (Iran), 2) the Caspian Sea (Iran and Azerbaijan), 3) the Black Sea (Georgia and Bulgaria), and 4) the Mediterranean Sea (Greece).
The second consideration relates to Iran’s goal of combining multiple communication projects in order to mutually augment the economic benefits of each of those individual transit routes. Notably, the Persian Gulf–Black Sea International Transport and Transit Corridor, the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), and China’s Silk Road Economic Belt (a trans-Eurasian element of its broader Belt and Road Initiative, or BRI) are three strategic transit initiatives whose sea, land and/or rail routes pass through Iran. Effectively combining the capacity of all three would allow Iran to connect the Oman Sea and the Gulf to the south, Afghanistan and Pakistan to the east, Central Asia to the northeast, and the Caucasus to the northwest.

Source: IRNA -  Date: (19 July 2021)