Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan have launched a 380-kilometer Trans-Caspian fiber-optic communications line. Presidents Kassym-Jomart Tokayev and Ilham Aliyev took part in the ceremony, Dispatch reports, citing Akorda.
The line, laid across the Caspian seabed, was built jointly by Kazakhtelecom JSC and Azerbaijan’s AzerTelecom. The fiber-optic link will become part of a new route connecting Kazakhstan, other Central Asian countries and China with Europe. It may later be connected to subsea systems in the Mediterranean and Black seas.
The project is strategically important for the development of Kazakhstan’s digital economy. The Trans-Caspian fiber-optic line will provide the country with additional international connectivity and create conditions for attracting global technology companies and developing cloud services and artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Speaking at the launch ceremony, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev said the new communications line would generate a strong synergistic effect for the joint efforts of Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan to develop the Middle Corridor.
We have launched a very important project that will have international resonance. Most importantly, this is a new type of corridor. It is not a transport corridor, but something new that fits the modern era, the era of digitalization. This is a fundamentally new format of cooperation, a kind of digital embodiment of the Middle Corridor,
– the President of Kazakhstan stressed.
Ilham Aliyev, in turn, described the launch of the fiber-optic line as another step toward strengthening cooperation between Central Asia and Azerbaijan.
Last year, Azerbaijan was admitted as a full member of the Consultative Meetings of the Heads of State of Central Asia, and this year I participated as a full member of this organization. This project has become another contribution to deepening cooperation, as the fiber-optic line will be used by the countries of Central Asia, the countries of the South Caucasus and the wider geographic region. Today, we have launched a global project,
– said the President of the Republic of Azerbaijan.
The opening ceremony also featured remarks by Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Zhaslan Madiyev, Azerbaijan’s Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev, and Chairman of the Management Board of Kazakhtelecom JSC Bagdat Mussin.
In the presence of the heads of state, a ceremony was held to exchange the signed Agreement on Cooperation for the Development of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Corridor between the Government of the Republic of Kazakhstan and the Government of the Republic of Azerbaijan.