Russia to develop North South corridor to reach India says Russian President Putin

Russia is developing the ambitious North-South Transport Corridor, which will open up new routes for business cooperation with India, Iran and Pakistan, as well as West Asian countries, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced.

In his one hour and 45 minutes State of the Nation Address to the Federal Assembly on February 21st, Mr Putin also said that Russia will expand promising international economic connections, as well as build new supply corridors, as the US-led West has imposed crippling sanctions for Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine nearly one year ago.

“We will develop the ports of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov, we will particularly focus on the North-South International Corridor,” Putin said, noting that it will open up new routes for business cooperation with India, Iran, Pakistan as well as West Asian countries.

“We will continue developing this corridor,” Putin was quoted as saying by the state-run Tass news agency. “What areas should the state, regions, and local businesses focus their partnership work on? First, we will expand promising international economic connections and build new supply corridors,” he said in the speech days before the Ukraine war’s first anniversary on Friday.

He said a decision has already been taken to extend the Moscow-Kazan highway to Yekaterinburg, Chelyabinsk and Tyumen, and in the future — to Irkutsk and Vladivostok, and potentially — to Kazakhstan, Mongolia and China, which will particularly expand Russia’s economic ties with the markets of Southeast Asia.