BAKU, Azerbaijan, July 31. In line with the EU’s approach to promoting and developing transport infrastructure, regional cooperation among all Middle Corridor countries is of particular importance, especially in supporting the sustainable economic development of the entire Central Asian region and in ensuring that the Corridor does not operate merely as a transit route, the European Commission told Trend.
“This matter was discussed last year during the creation of the quadrilateral Joint Venture and the Roadmap of Investments agreed in Aktau,” a source at the Commission said.
The source pointed out that transport corridors between Europe and Central Asian countries have increased substantially in geopolitical importance and potential, following the outbreak of war in Ukraine.
“As traffic along the Northern Corridor through Russia has dropped, the Middle Corridor through Kazakhstan and across the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus has taken on additional trade volumes, handling 2.5 times more cargo in 2022 than in 2021. There is also an increased interest and planning of other transport connections in the region, involving Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan,” the source added.
Middle Corridor, is a multilateral institutional development linking the containerized rail freight transport networks of the People’s Republic of China (PRC) and the European Union through the economies of Central Asia, the Caucasus, Türkiye, and Eastern Europe. The multilateral, multimodal transport institution links Caspian and Black Sea ferry terminals with rail systems in the PRC, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Türkiye, Ukraine, and Poland.
Middle Corridor serves to increase freight traffic from China to Turkey, as well as to the European countries and in the reverse direction.
The block train running along this corridor delivers cargo from China to Europe in an average of 20-25 days. This is one of the main advantages of the transport corridor.
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