Southeast Asian countries are considering TIR to build intermodal connections to Europe via the Middle Corridor.
The International Road Transport Union’s (IRU) TIR and Transit System Director, Tatiana Rey-Bellet, said this in an exclusive interview with Trend, discussing the wider potential of eTIR and the Middle Corridor as an alternative to purely maritime routes.
"Already today, South-East Asian countries are considering TIR to build intermodal connections to Europe via the Middle Corridor as an alternative to purely maritime routes," she said.
According to Rey-Bellet, the potential of eTIR extends beyond the Middle Corridor, with digital transit able to link trade partners through combinations of road, sea and rail transport.
"Beyond the Middle Corridor, eTIR has great potential to link trade partners through an efficient combination of road, sea and rail transport," she said.
Rey-Bellet said the successful use of eTIR on a multimodal route combining road and maritime transport demonstrates that digital transit can operate across different modes and borders within a single framework.
"The successful use of eTIR across a multimodal route combining road and maritime transport demonstrates that digital transit can work seamlessly across different modes and borders under one trusted framework," she said.
According to her, countries can benefit from eTIR through the eTIR National Application developed by the UN Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE), which can be used either as a standalone solution or integrated into national systems.
"To enable countries to benefit from eTIR without delay, UNECE has developed the eTIR National Application, a UN open-source tool that allows customs authorities to use eTIR easily and quickly – either as a standalone solution or integrated into national systems," Rey-Bellet said.
According to her, the application provides customs administrations with a cost-free and practical way to begin implementing digital transit procedures.
"Furthermore, with the transition to eTIR, the intermodal nature of the TIR Convention opens new opportunities for all actors across the supply chain," Rey-Bellet added.
For reference, the International Road Transport Union (IRU) is the World Road Transport Organisation, representing the interests of the road transport sector and working on trade facilitation, transit, customs procedures and the digitalisation of international road transport.
IRU is closely associated with the TIR system, an international customs transit system established under the UN TIR Convention. Its electronic counterpart, eTIR, enables customs authorities to exchange transit data electronically, including guarantee information, while supporting advance cargo information and real-time data exchange.
The latest development marks another step in the gradual expansion of eTIR across Central Asia. In particular, in July 2026, eTIR operations were carried out for the first time across the Caspian Sea - between Azerbaijan and Turkmenistan, and onward to Uzbekistan - linking all three countries through a single digital transit procedure, while the first eTIR transport operation between Uzbekistan and Azerbaijan had been carried out back in December 2022.
The development forms part of wider efforts to digitalise transport along the Middle Corridor, which links China and Central Asia across the Caspian Sea with the South Caucasus, Türkiye and Europe. IRU has previously called for accelerated digitalisation of transport and trade in Central Asia as transit volumes along the region's international corridors continue to grow.
