The Yiwu-Tehran train is a significant part of Beijing’s plans for regional integration.
By Sudha Ramachandran
The Diplomat - March 30, 2016
The freight train from China that pulled into Tehran a little over a month ago created history by becoming the first train to revive the ancient Silk Route between China and Iran.
Ferrying 32 containers of cargo, it left Yiwu in China’s eastern
Zhejiang province on January 2, snaking its way through Kazakhstan and
Turkmenistan before entering Iran. It took the train 14 days to cover
the roughly 10,399 km long journey to Tehran.
Part of the overland component of China’s One Belt, One Road (OBOR)
initiative, the Yiwu-Tehran rail link slashes travel time between
China’s east coast and Iran. Its arrival “in less than 14 days is
unprecedented,” the head of the Iran Railways company Mohsen Pourseyyed
Aqai said.
Ferrying cargo via the sea from Shanghai, which lies 300 km north of
Yiwu, to the Iranian port of Bandar Abbas takes 45 days in comparison.
The China-Iran “Silk Road train” will run once a month. Its frequency
will increase as trade picks up. China’s economic co-operation with
Iran, which deepened through the sanctions period – bilateral trade grew from
$4 billion in 2003 to $53 billion in 2013 – is expected to soar in the
coming years as Beijing and Tehran are eyeing stronger trade ties. In
January, during the visit of Chinese President Xi Jinping to Iran, the
two sides agreed to increase trade to $600 billion over the coming decade.
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