Aliyev and Tokayev open a 380 km fibre-optic cable laid along the bottom of the Caspian Sea

President Ilham Aliyev met Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev in Baku on 15 October. The leaders noted with satisfaction the successful development of the strategic partnership and alliance between the two countries and said mutual visits had broadened cooperation.

After the meeting the two presidents opened, in an online ceremony, the Trans-Caspian Fibre-Optic Cable Line built under the Digital Silk Way initiative. The roughly 380 km line runs along the bed of the Caspian Sea from Sumgayit to Aktau, with a capacity of more than 400 terabits per second. It will allow data from China and Central Asia to reach Europe via Azerbaijan and Georgia and then across the Black Sea or through Türkiye. The project is expected to support investment in data centres, cloud services and computing power and to strengthen the digital role of the Middle Corridor. Tokayev described it as "not a transport corridor, but something new" that fits the digital era.

Two documents were also exchanged. Azerbaijan's Minister of Digital Development and Transport Rashad Nabiyev and Kazakhstan's Minister of Transport Nurlan Sauranbayev exchanged an agreement on developing the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (the Middle Corridor), while Rashad Nabiyev, as chair of AZCON's supervisory board, and Nurlan Zhakupov, chair of the management board of Samruk-Kazyna, exchanged a certificate confirming the joint purchase of two dry-cargo ships.