Baghdad – WAA
Minister of Transport Razzaq Muhaibis Al-Saadawi announced today, Thursday, from the Turkish city of Istanbul, that the implementation of the development road project will begin in mid-2025, while indicating that he agreed with the Turkish side that the next meeting will be in Baghdad.
Al-Saadawi said during a press conference held with his Turkish counterpart in Istanbul on the sidelines of the quadripartite meeting held at Dolmabahce Palace, which was followed by the (INA): “We held the first meeting of the quadripartite ministerial committee, within the memorandum of understanding between Iraq, Turkey, Qatar and the Emirates, in Istanbul, to discuss the latest developments in the project.”
He thanked the Turkish Ministry of Transport for hosting the first quadripartite ministerial meeting on the development road project, noting that “the meeting comes within the framework of activating the memorandum of understanding that was signed by the member states during the visit of Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to Baghdad last April, where we discussed a number of issues such as the distribution of responsibilities and the organization of work mechanisms in the project.”
He continued, “The meeting discussed ways to complete the paragraphs of the quadripartite memorandum of understanding, the most important of which is: establishing a coordination entity, from which three levels emerge, the first ministerial (the four ministers), the second coordination (the general managers), and the third executive (experts and technicians),” noting that “it was agreed that the next meeting will be in Baghdad, two months from now.”
He said, “Work to complete the requirements of the development path is proceeding well, with great support from our government, which looks forward to a strong economy and diversification of sources of income, in a way that serves Iraq, the region, and the world.”
Al-Sadawi revealed that “the first phase of the strategic development road project will be implemented in the middle of next year, after the completion of the detailed design phase of the project, noting that “the feasibility study has been completed, and with regard to the initial designs, the completion rate of the railway track has reached 100 percent, while the completion rate of the land expressway has reached 75 percent, and we have completed the soil investigation and topographic survey operations by 100 percent.”
In turn, Turkish Minister of Transport Abdulkadir Oraloglu said: “The meeting discussed the development road project, foreign trade, and the transportation and communications sector for the Quad bloc countries.”
He stressed that “the development road project will start from the Grand Faw Port in the Iraqi city of Basra and will reach London by land and rail,” indicating that “in comparison to other projects, this road will shorten the distance compared to the rest of the international roads, canals and passages between the continents of Asia and Europe.”
He said, “The path of development will be short and important, and will contribute to developing the economies of the countries participating in it.”