In Ashgabat, the Caspian Five echo India's stand on speedy launch of International North South Transport Corridor
Russian President Vladimir Putin has again batted for the "speedy launch" of the International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) to improve the transport and logistics architecture of the Eurasian region. At this week's Caspian Summit in Ashgabat, Putin spoke in detail about the 7,200 km-long, multimodal trade corridor which will start from Mumbai, with nodes in West Asia, Central Asia, Caucasia and Russia covering large swathes of territory in landlocked Eurasia. "The speedy launch of this corridor is intended to be facilitated by the agreement between the Caspian states on cooperation in the field of transport, which came into force last year, which is aimed at turning the Caspian Sea region into a major international logistics hub," Putin told the gathering which comprised of Presidents of Azerbaijan (Ilham Aliyev), Iran (Ebrahim Raisi), Kazakhstan (Kassym-Jomart Tokayev) and Turkmenistan (Serdar Berdimuhamedov). The Russian President highlighted active