Assessing the results of his country’s Foreign Ministry work in 2011, Lithuanian Foreign Minister Audronius Azubalis tells us that the ‘Viking’ train has been expanded to cover Georgia and Moldova and that talks are underway with Turkey, Bulgaria, Azerbaijan, Syria and Egypt.
“We hope the project will further develop — not only southwards but to the north and to the Scandinavian states,” he stresses, adding that ‘the project would never have come to life without Belarus’. “It was initiated by three countries: Lithuania, Belarus and Ukraine. Two other states joined not long ago,” Mr. Azubalis notes.
On the part of Belarus, the Republican Transport-Expedition Belintertrans Company is successfully realising certain container train projects with foreign partners — in particular, the ‘Viking’ route (Odessa/Ilyichevsk — Minsk — Klaipeda), the ‘ZUBR’ (Tallinn — Riga — Minsk — Ilyichevsk/Odessa) and the ‘Mongolian Vector’ (Brest — Iletsk — Ulan-Bator).
In 2011, container transportation by Belarusian Railways totalled 111.4 percent against the previous year, with Hewlett-Packard computers being transported from China to Germany, Bosch products from Brest to Moscow and BMW components from Germany to China. Belarusian Railways currently operates ten container trains.
