President of Türkiye, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shiya al-Sudani signed a memorandum of understanding with the Gulf Cooperation Council to connect Iraq to Europe via Türkiye.
Involving Iraq, Türkiye, Qatar and the UAE, the project aims to build a 1,200-kilometer highway and railway from the Grand Faw Port in Basra, Iraq, through the Iraqi cities of Diwaniyah, Najaf, Karbala, Baghdad and Mosul to the Turkish border. The highway corridor will connect the Turkish border to Mersin Port in Türkiye, and from there to Europe via Istanbul.
The signature ceremony was attended by Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, Rezzak Muhaybis, Iraqi Minister of Transport, Casim bin Seyf al-Sulayti, Qatari Minister of Transport and Communications, and Suheil Mohammed al-Mezrui, UAE Minister of Energy and Infrastructure.
With the mentioned agreement, the transportation time will be shortened to 25 days and a target of 20 billion dollars in Türkiye-Iraq trade is in question.
Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure Abdülkadir Uraloğlu stated: "We have started our work for the Development Road Project, which will be Türkiye's new Silk Road, and the land and railways planned within the scope of the Zengezur Corridor. We foresee that the projects, which will transport the cargoes coming to Iraq via India, East Asia and the Persian Gulf to Europe via rail and road connections, will benefit a wide geography. We have 1592 kilometers of roads for the 1923 kilometers of land-road corridor of the Development Road Project."
Uraloğlu stated that direct rail and road transportation will be provided between Türkiye and Azerbaijan, adding that a new connection will be established between Türkiye and Central Asia through the Zengezur Corridor. "As we see, we are prioritizing Türkiye's international transportation not only internally but also globally integrated," said Minister Uraloğlu, adding that there is a new 331-kilometer highway investment between Şanlıurfa and Ovaköy in Şırnak Silopi.
The 4-way memorandum of understanding is also important as it signed during the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan to Iraq for the first time in 13 years. A total of 26 agreements were signed during the visit to strengthen relations between the two countries in many fields such as energy, trade, education, tourism, sports, health and many others.
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