Customs Officers Practiced Protecting the Middle Corridor on the Turkmenbashi-Baku Route
The growth of cargo flows along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor) requires coastal and transit states to adopt fundamentally new approaches to security and speed of inspection. This was the focus of a practical training session for port control units from Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Tajikistan.
The event was held under the auspices of the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), the World Customs Organization (WCO), UNCTAD, and the Regional Customs Administration Network (IREN).
The unique format of the exercise linked two key Caspian hubs – the Turkmenbashi International Seaport and the Azerbaijani port of Alat. The practical phase began in Turkmenistan, continued aboard a ferry during the Caspian Sea crossing, and concluded in Baku.
The main objective of onboard and port inspections is to practice identifying and intercepting high-risk cargo, as well as to establish real-time data exchange between regional port services.
Speaking at the final capacity-building session at the WCO Baku Office, Major General Fuad Mammadov, Deputy Chairman of the State Customs Committee of Azerbaijan, emphasized that the seamlessness and security of supply chains along the Middle Corridor directly depend on the speed of interagency information exchange and the implementation of digital technologies.
During the theoretical session, WCO experts and Azerbaijani customs officials presented their Central Asian counterparts with advanced digital inspection platforms and analyzed practical cases for preventing customs violations at sea.
This synchronization of Caspian ports' operations allows us to address two strategic objectives: minimizing the risks of illegal traffic and smuggling, and significantly reducing customs clearance times for legitimate businesses on key transit routes between Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
