Ukraine has launched the first container train along the Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China route / Photo from UNIAN
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying says Beijing supports Kyiv's proposal to create the Trans-Caspian transport corridor from China to Europe via Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan bypassing Russia in addition to the existing transit routes, according to Russian news agency TASS.
"As for the proposal by the Ukrainian side and some other countries to lay a new transport route, China also supports it," Hua Chunying said at a regular briefing for journalists on Monday, TASS reported.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson also noted the importance of the existing railway freight routes from China to Europe "on the basis of the Trans-Siberian Railway and the new Eurasian trans-continental bridge" to develop the Silk Road economic belt.
Ukraine earlier announced the launch of efforts to develop an export route bypassing Russia.
On January 14, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Ukraine signed a protocol in Baku on establishing preferential tariffs for cargo carriages along the Trans-Caspian international transport route.
By mid-February, the sides plan to agree a common tariff policy.
On January 15, Ukraine launched the first container train along the Ukraine-Georgia-Azerbaijan-Kazakhstan-China route from the sea port of Illichivsk in Odesa region.
According to Kyiv's plans, the new route will run from the station of Izov on the border between Ukraine and Poland to the station of Dostyk on the Kazakhstan-China border and will include ferries across the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea and take no more than two weeks.