BAKU, Azerbaijan, Dec. 2
By Sadraddin Aghjayev - Trend:
Azerbaijan will be able to increase its opportunities in the field of transit within China’s "One Belt - One Road" project, Director of the Institute of a New Society Vasily Koltashov told Trend .
Koltashov added that this can be facilitated by the complicated relations of China with the UK, Australia, and the US when Beijing does not consider its sea routes to be safe and will focus more on continental transit and transit along the northern sea route.
“Moreover, Azerbaijan has a good potential to become a transit country both for neighboring countries, namely, Turkey, Iran, Russia, within the One Belt - One Road" project, and for the flow of goods from China and to China,” director of the Institute of a New Society added.
Koltashov said that there is a problem only with the European market as this project focuses not only on enhancing the exchange of goods in the transport sector but also on the ability to supply more cargo to Europe.
“It is quite possible that the EU market will stagnate and China will be unable to sharply increase volumes of goods to the EU soon,” the director of the Institute of a New Society added.
Koltashov said that China has enough old sea routes.
“Therefore, the process of Azerbaijan’s becoming a full-fledged transit country within this project will be long as the entire “One Belt - One Road” project will be reformed in the coming years proceeding from new circumstances,” director of the Institute of a New Society said.
Koltashov said that it cannot be perceived and implemented as an economically neutral project as China imagined.
“Perhaps there will be many other agreements and the transformation of this project can be expected,” the director of the Institute of a New Society said. “Despite all this, the "One Belt - One Road" project has some progress in development.”
“In particular, it is possible to talk about the development of the northern sea route around Russia to Europe, the strengthening of economic ties among the countries participating in the project, especially between the Russian Federation and China,” Koltashov said.
“Moreover, this route will be further developed taking into account the stabilization of the situation in Afghanistan,” the director of the Institute of a New Society said. “However, it can be developed bypassing Afghanistan to avoid possible problems in the future.”
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