The leaders of Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan on March 11 greeted the first containers delivered from China to Azerbaijan's eastern Abseron district via a new train route crossing the vast territory of Kazakhstan.
Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and his Kazakh counterpart, Qasym-Zhomart Toqaev, monitored the arrival of the containers via a video-link in Baku.
The 61 containers filled with goods covered the 7,000-kilometer trek from China's Xi'an Province in 11 days. After leaving Xi'an by train, the containers arrived at a terminal on the Kazakh shore of the Caspian Sea, from where they were loaded onto a vessel that crossed the land-locked body of water to Azerbaijan.
The containers were then taken by rail to Abseron. Authorities expect that 10 such container trains will reach Azerbaijan from China via Kazakhstan each month.
Toqaev arrived in Baku on March 11 for a two-day official visit that includes participation in the first session of the Azerbaijani-Kazakh interstate council.
Aliyev and Toqaev signed several bilateral documents, including a memorandum on supporting small and medium-sized businesses in the two countries, an agreement on cooperation between Azerbaijan's investment holding and Kazakhstan's state wealth fund, and other documents.
Azerbaijan's state-owned oil company, SOCAR, and Kazakhstan's state-owned energy giant, KazMunaiGas, signed an agreement on increasing volumes of Kazakh oil transported to Western markets via Azerbaijan.
Kazakhtan oil output is expected to pick up in the coming years amid expansion at the giant Tengiz oil field.
The two former Soviet republics are members of the Organization of Turkic States, of which Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, and Uzbekistan are also members, while Hungary, Turkmenistan, and Northern Cyprus have observer status in the grouping.