BAKU, Azerbaijan, October 28. The Middle Corridor coming through Azerbaijan is the shortest route between China and Europe, Secretary General of the International Road Transport Union (IRU) Umberto de Pretto told reporters, TurkicWorld reports.

He said that IRU is looking how to make full use of the Middle Corridor given the increasing traffic between China and Europe.

Besides, de Pretto noted that looking at different routes from China to Europe, IRU sees three options: Northern Corridor, the Middle Corridor or the Southern Corridor.

The Middle Corridor which comes through Azerbaijan is the shortest Corridor, but it's the most complicated one because it requires to use multi-modal transport, passes through two seas and many countries, he emphasized.

Moreover, the secretary general expressed confidence that the Middle Corridor can be used more effectively, which will be an advantage to Azerbaijan.

As de Pretto pointed out, to enhance the Middle Corridor, existing tools should be used.

Speaking about the IRU's looking how to make full use of the Middle Corridor, he said the union provides to customs authorities around the world 50 billion euro per year in guarantees.

Additionally, he informed about his recent discussions with Azerbaijani customs leadership regarding how to make better use of the TIR system (a customs transit system enabling goods to flow across borders) to make sure of maximizing the benefits of the Middle Corridor with a guarantee and electronic communication between all the participants.

Middle Corridor, is a multilateral institutional development linking the containerized rail freight transport networks of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the European Union through the economies of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Türkiye, and Eastern Europe. The multilateral, multi-modal transport institution links Caspian and Black Sea ferry terminals with rail systems in the PRC, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Poland.

Middle Corridor serves to increase freight traffic from China to Türkiye, as well as to the European countries and in the reverse direction.

The block train running along this corridor delivers cargo from China to Europe in an average of 20-25 days. This is one of the main advantages of the transport corridor.