Azerbaijan and Georgia digitise international transport permits on the Middle Corridor
Following an agreement reached in Baku on 8 and 9 April 2026, Azerbaijan and Georgia now route their international road transport permits through a shared electronic system. A first batch of 3,000 permits, bilateral, transit and third-country, was exchanged after a pilot phase, on a corridor increasingly used by containerised freight between China and Europe.
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The agreement on the electronic permit system (E-Permit) was concluded at a meeting held in Baku on 8 and 9 April 2026. A joint technical working group began integrating the systems on 1 May 2026, ahead of pilot shipments that validated how the system worked.
The two countries then moved to full implementation, exchanging a first batch of 3,000 electronic permits, split between bilateral permits, transit permits and third-country transport permits. Hauliers can now obtain these documents through an automated portal available around the clock, without having to visit government offices in person.
This digitisation is part of the wider modernisation of the Middle Corridor, the trans-Caspian route linking China to Europe via Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan and Georgia, increasingly used as an alternative to routes crossing Russia. Azerbaijan also concluded a similar agreement with Kazakhstan on 25 June 2026 to switch entirely to electronic permits from 2027, raising their annual exchanged quota to 28,000 permits.
This affects road hauliers and freight forwarders moving goods by lorry between Azerbaijan and Georgia, or in transit towards Europe and Turkey via this corridor, rather than through Russia or by sea.
What it changes for an importer
For a Sorva client whose freight moves through the Middle Corridor rather than through Russia or the Red Sea, the digitisation of transport permits reduces the risk of administrative hold-ups at the border posts between Azerbaijan and Georgia. Sorva follows these developments for clients choosing rail or road transport via the Caucasus, without standing in for the local freight forwarder, who remains responsible for transit formalities on the ground.
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