The Importance Of Eurasia's Middle Corridor: Pointers From World Economic Forum 2023

Eurasia’s Middle Corridor is an initiative to connect Turkey to China via Georgia, Azerbaijan, the Caspian Sea, and then either Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan. It holds importance as it has the potential to transform the economies of central Asia, the Caucasus, and Turkey. Not just economical, but political developments of Eurasia are also dependent on the middle corridor. At the World Economic Forum, talking about the topic are panelists Ilham Aliyev, President of the Republic of Azerbaijan, Irakli Garibashvili, Prime Minister of Georgia, Yohanez Han, Commissioner for Budget and Administration at the European Commission and Ebru Özdemir, Chairperson of the Board, Limag Holding from Turkey. 

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Revival of the Middle Corridor

The volume of cargo traversing the middle corridor route is expected to grow six-fold to 3.2 million metric tons in 2022 compared to 2021. It still represents 8% of the cargo volume shipped through the Trans-Siberian Railway. Talking about the multi-party agreements around the middle corridor, President Ilham Aliyev said, “I think one of the advantages of the Middle Corridor is that the countries which are involved in this huge project have good relations between themselves. I think this is one of the main prerequisites for success in any multinational initiative. Azerbaijan has excellent relations with its neighbors to the west, Georgia and Turkey, and to the east, Central Asia. And being a kind of a natural geographical bridge between east and west, we invested largely into transportation infrastructure in the previous years.”

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He continued, “All the necessary infrastructure facilities in Azerbaijan are ready to receive more cargoes. Our seaport, which has a capacity of 15 million tons, will be expanded, and already there is a budget allocated for that, up to 25 million tons, because we expect a growing number of cargo for particular reasons mentioned earlier, the difficulties of transportation through traditional northern route. We already have seen the diversion of a large number of cargoes from Central Asia, and this is only the beginning.”

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Investing In The Connectivity

Agreeing on the importance of relationship between the countries in the region, Prime Minister Irakli Garibashvili, from Georgia’s point of view said, “First of all, I want to mention that highway, we are building highways, which will be completed by the end of 2024. We’re spending like two or three billion dollars to complete this highway. And of course, this will facilitate this transportation. Second, I also want to mention the ports. The ports capacity of Black Sea, of Georgia, is quite big. But I think we need to increase it. And third, I also want to mention that we are together with Azerbaijan. We are developing different initiatives. For example, I want to mention Black Sea submarine cable, electric cable, which is also very interesting. This we are doing with together with Azerbaijan, with Romania, with Hungary.”

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Talking about the Anaklia Deep Sea Port, he continued, “We have decided that the government of Georgia will start construction of this port. Fifty one percent of this port will be of this consortium that we want to build. It will be owned by Georgia, by the government of Georgia. And of course, for the rest, 49 percent, we want to announce an international tender. Anaklia mentioned about the increase of capacity of Azerbaijan ports. I think Kazakhstan has the same intention. So Georgia has now capacity about around 550,000 to in Port-to-Port, around 200,000 in Batumi Port. But this is not enough. So that’s why we want to implement this project.”

Trans-border Transportation

Georgia at present has a railway cargo capacity of 25 million tons. They are are implementing the modernization of railway which will be completed by the end of 2024, increasing the capacity to around 48 million tons. They are also building a Baku Tbilisi Kars railroad which is funded by Azerbaijan. This project is also estimated to be complete around end of 2024 adding another 5 million ton of cargo capacity. 

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Prime Minister Garibashvili said, “These are very strategically important projects. I also want to mention the relationship between Azerbaijan and Georgia. This relationship is tested, reliable, trusted. We have implemented together very important historical projects, such as the oil and gas pipelines. So now this railway project and many others, which will come in the future.”