Shipping through the Strait of Hormuz has effectively come to a standstill. This is a serious problem for Kazakhstan’s transport strategy: the country has lost its potential direct access to the world’s oceans. Kazakhstan had planned to use Iran as a ‘gateway’ to the markets of Southeast Asia and Africa. Iran had previously allocated a plot of land to Kazakhstan in the port of Shahid Rajai in Bandar Abbas. The blockade of the strait has brought this project to a standstill.
Kazakhstan and Iran are participating in the eastern branch of the North-South international transport corridor, which connects Russia and Central Asian countries with the ports of the Persian Gulf and India. Kazakhstan has been actively investing in the development of this corridor in recent years. In 2024, Iran, Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan signed a roadmap for the synchronised development of the eastern branch of the route for 2024-2025. The implementation of the measures involved increasing the corridor’s capacity to 15 million tonnes by 2027 and to 20 million tonnes by 2030.
The escalation in the Middle East is also putting pressure on Kazakhstan’s trade relations with Iran. The free trade agreement between the Eurasian Economic Union and Iran, which came into force on 15 May 2025, gave Iran preferential access to 90% of the product range, with duties reduced from 20% to 4.5%. In 2025, trade between Kazakhstan and Iran grew by 26% to reach US$43.245 million, which is only 0.3% of the country’s total trade.
