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Baltic to seek EU funds for rail project

Riga - The three Baltic states on Tuesday signed a joint venture for Rail Baltica, a long-discussed European-standard gauge railway that aims to connect the region to the rest of Europe by 2025.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania all have Soviet-era wide gauge railways, a relic of their near half century as unwilling members of the Soviet Union.

They broke free when the Soviet Union crumbled in 1990/1991 and went on to join both the EU and Nato in 2004.

The deal for the high-speed rail link from Estonia's capital Tallinn to Warsaw in Poland, was inked at a Tuesday meeting of the three Baltic transport ministers in Riga.

The step allows the trio to apply for funding from the European Union for the project, which is expected to cost $47bn.

Baltic leaders hope the EU will provide the lion's share - around 85% - of the financing.

With a total population of just six million, the Baltic trio are betting the new railway will create fresh opportunities for the region in the trade and transit sectors.

At a time when a resurgent Russia is spooking the three formerly Soviet-ruled states, the project has also taken on a security dimension.

"Our current railway infrastructure is not connected with the rest of the European Union, and the current geopolitical situation means we have to rethink our transportation routes and develop new alternatives for our cargo traffic," Latvian Transport Minister Anrijs Matiss said at the signing ceremony.

"This project comes in the right time," he added.

In the region, the high-speed rail line will connect Tallinn with Latvia's capital Riga and the Lithuanian city of Kaunas, along with a branch to the capital Vilnius.

The routing via the Lithuanian capital was at the centre of a dispute that threatened to derail the project earlier this year.

Plans call for the line to be completed by 2025. It is expected to carry five million passengers and 13 million tonnes of cargo per year.

Rail Baltica is among 30 priority transport projects identified by the 28-member European Union.

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