Leaders of Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan signed an agreement Wednesday to build a railroad line that will linking the three nations and provide a new route for trade between Turkey and the Caucasus Mountain nations, according to The Associated Press. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliev and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan signed the deal in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, where Erdogan also attended the opening of an international airport terminal that was rebuilt by a Turkish company. Construction is expected to start in June on the US$600 million (¤462 million) rail line linking the eastern Turkish city of Kars with the Azerbaijani capital, Baku, on the oil-rich Caspian Sea. It will go through the Georgian town of Akhalkalaki and the capital, Tbilisi. Saakashvili said the railroad would be a «a geopolitical and geo-economic revolution» that will connect Europe with the Caucasus and Central Asia, further east. Erdogan likened it to the Silk Road, the trade caravans that long ago linked Asia with Europe. Georgian authorities say they expect the railroad to handle 15 million tons of goods annually.
