Taking into consideration the geopolitical situation of TRACECA countries and trade relations development between Europe and Asia, the rise of freight flows on the one hand and logical reverse freight flows on the other hand, it is necessary to emphasise the growing importance of transport links (corridors) in East-West direction.
In this context the most important task of the countries, which signed the Basic Multilateral Agreement on international transport for development of the transport corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (the Basic Agreement) on 8 September, 1998 at the summit in Baku, consists in taking full advantage of their geopolitical locations and economic opportunities through the development of transport networks along the international transport corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia (TRACECA) that has been officially acknowledged by leading international institutions and the freight forwarding industry as one of the natural transit bridges between Europe and Asia.
After signature of the Basic Agreement, the legal basis for the organisation of international transit traffic on a more improved level was established. With assistance of the European Commission within the framework of the TRACECA Programme a number of technical and investment projects were implemented. Most urgent transport infrastructure and operational bottlenecks were addressed by investments projects. The Tacis TRACECA technical assistance adresses the management and institutional sphere and enhanced sustainability of TRACECA. The TRACECA programme has also addressed the main concerns faced by freight forwarders and international transport agencies.
Thus, TRACECA projects are dealing with trade facilitation and harmonisation of the legal basis, with intermodal transportation but also with the transport modes road, railway, civil aviation, and maritime transportation.. Non-physical transport barriers were addressed mainly by traffic and tariff studies and by border crossing activities. The common efforts of the participating countries and the EC supported project teams brought about considerable growth of flows of freight traffic along the TRACECA corridor.
TRACECA projects go together with initiatives of the international donors and development agencies.