Karaismailoğlu met with his Bulgarian counterpart Aleksiev at Kapıkule Border Gate

Adil Karaismailoğlu, Minister of Transport and Infrastructure, said, “We are having important talks to rapidly increase the capacity of both Turkish and Bulgarian railways. Hopefully, we will increase the transitions on the railways much more in the coming days," he said.

Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Adil Karaismailoğlu met with Bulgarian Deputy Prime Minister for Economic Affairs and Minister of Transport and Communications Hristo Aleksiev at the Kapıkule Border Gate. Karaismailoğlu said that they held an important and productive meeting on border crossings during the meeting.

Pointing out that exports increased very rapidly after the Kovid-19 epidemic, Karaismailoğlu stated that in this sense, a great burden was placed on the customs gates. Underlining that the Bulgarian side has made very important contributions to lightening the load, accelerating the transitions, and eliminating the problems experienced at the Kapıkule Border Gate, which stretches from the Far East to Europe, Karaismailoğlu said, “The long queues at the gates in the past days have decreased a lot as a result of their devoted efforts, but of course. Due to the increase in exports, there will be more burden in the coming days. We are holding important talks to increase the capacity on the highway at the gates and to speed up the transitions," he said.

WE ARE CONDUCTING IMPORTANT MEETINGS TO FAST INCREASE THE CAPACITY ON THE RAILWAYS

Pointing out that railways are also very important in transportation due to the fact that the capacity of road transport is certain, Karaismailoğlu emphasized the importance of increasing the capacity of railway transport. Noting that shifting the freight to the railways is one of the most important agenda items in international transportation, Minister of Transport Karaismailoğlu said, “We are having important negotiations to increase the capacity of the railway both on the Turkish and Bulgarian sides. Hopefully, in the coming days, we will increase the transitions on the railways much, much more. In addition, we need to support the sea route and Ro-Ro transports. That's why we, as the Ministry, carry out important policies to improve Turkish Ro-Ro flights with Burgas, Varna and Romania connections. We had issued the necessary regulations to encourage Ro-Ro. Hopefully, both our trade will increase and our problems at the gates will decrease. Bulgaria is Turkey's gateway to Europe. Our long-standing friendly relations are also reflected in our trade, and we need to be in constant consultation to further develop trade. However, as Bulgaria, Serbia and Hungary, we have important studies on how we can develop railway transportation. We will hold our quartet meetings again in the coming days. Today's meeting was very productive in terms of finding solutions to Turkey's increasing trade volume and developing relations with friendly brotherly countries.