Turkmenistan and Iran Elevate Joint Trade Zone Project to ECO Priority Level
A delegation from Turkmenistan participated in the 36th meeting of the Regional Planning Council of the Economic Cooperation Organization (ECO), chaired by Pakistan. During the forum, Ashgabat reaffirmed its commitment to deep transport and logistics integration, promoting energy dialogue, and diversifying supply routes based on green development principles. The Turkmen side placed particular emphasis on the potential of the Turkmenbashi International Seaport as a key hub for the East-West and North-South multimodal corridors.
According to the Tasnim International News Agency, the meeting also discussed a project to establish a joint trade zone between Turkmenistan and the Islamic Republic of Iran. The pilot project, which will be based at the Altyn Asyr and Incheburun border crossings, marks a shift from classic border trade to deep economic integration through the harmonization of regulations, the elimination of bureaucratic barriers, and the introduction of single-window trading.
This step logically follows on from the agreements reached by the parties last November at an interagency meeting in the Iranian province of Golestan, with the support of the ECO. The geographic logic of the Incheburun and Altyn Asyr integration is based on the powerful potential of rail and road infrastructure, capable of linking Eurasian routes.
The success of this pilot project, designed to foster constructive interdependence between the two states, is already being considered by relevant ECO bodies as an exemplary administrative and customs model for subsequent scaling and the creation of an integrated network of free economic zones throughout the region.
