BAKU, Azerbaijan, March 19. Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are pivotal players in the success of the Middle Corridor, said Roman Vassilenko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, in an exclusive interview with Trend.
"Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan are pivotal players in the success of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route, also known as the Middle Corridor. In achieving the project's success, Kazakhstan and Azerbaijan hold indispensable roles. It's no coincidence that these two nations, along with Türkiye and Georgia, the core quartet of the Middle Corridor, have been cooperating closely in recent years to bolster this route. Notably, there have been several high-level meetings among the foreign and transport ministers of these four countries, both in Baku and Aktau. These meetings have yielded crucial roadmaps aimed at smoothing out any bottlenecks along the route," he said.
Deputy Minister Vassilenko stressed that over the past couple of years, the volume of cargo transported along this route has skyrocketed, more than tripling, doubling in 2022, and increasing by 65 percent in 2023 - from roughly 840,000 tons in 2021 to 2.76 million tons in 2023. "And naturally, the current projections suggest that this volume will continue to surge significantly over the coming years, once again, thanks to the concerted efforts of various states, both within and beyond the region," he added.
"I'd also like to highlight that Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia have come together to establish a joint venture named Middle Corridor Multimodal Limited. This company is registered in Astana, within the Astana International Financial Centre. This collaborative venture, involving the railways of Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, and Georgia, aims to standardize tariff policies, coordinate the provision of rolling stock and locomotives, and, more broadly, facilitate seamless services along this route in our three nations," Vassilenko explained.
Additionally, as the deputy minister noted, there's significant collaboration underway with external partners beyond the region.
"We're talking about China, which essentially serves as the main sender of goods along this route, and the European Union, the primary recipient of these goods traversing the vast expanse of Eurasia overland. We're also working closely with the G7, which is driving the global initiative known as the Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). We see all these major initiatives, like China's Belt and Road Initiative, the EU's Global Gateway program, and PGII, as complementary from the perspective of regional countries. Their implementation is set to benefit not only Central Asian and South Caucasian nations but also these external players. Hence, we don't perceive them as competing forces; rather, we see them as complementary," he added.
Regarding the Global Gateway 2024 forum held in Brussels at the end of January, focused on developing transport corridors between the EU and Central Asia, Vassilenko pointed out that the forum followed up on a report presented by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) last summer, commissioned by the European Commission.
"The report delved into the most competitive and less competitive, yet promising, avenues for transport infrastructure development in Central Asia. It highlighted the 'Central Trans-Caspian Transport Network', running through Southern Kazakhstan, as the most robust and promising route for linking Europe and China through Central Asia, initially via the South Caucasus and then through Central Asia. The EBRD proposed a two-zone approach, where along this route, starting from the Horgos transport crossing into Kazakhstan, extending southwest to Almaty, then through Taraz, Shymkent, Kyzylorda, Beyneu, and further to Aktau. According to the EBRD report, transportation projects covering all five Central Asian states are envisioned along this 500-kilometer corridor. The bank's experts estimated that around 40 measures would require 18.13 billion euros for implementation, of which 33 measures related to 'hard infrastructure' and another 7 concerning soft infrastructure, interconnectivity, digitization of cargo shipments, and the like. European structures, in collaboration with Central Asia, have been working on the practical implementation of this report to prepare for this successful forum. European structures have pledged 10 billion euros in loans or investments to be provided to the region's countries or companies implementing these projects, primarily through the EBRD or the European Investment Bank," explained Vassilenko.
As for specific agreements, the deputy minister noted that several memoranda were signed with the EBRD and the EIB during the forum, providing for financing or opening credit lines, including financing projects in Kazakhstan totaling 1.5 billion euros.
"In this context, the European approach to financing projects in Central Asia is laid out. As for conducting coordination meetings with EU partners, we're keen on further alignment with all our partners, both Europeans and others, considering the magnitude of the tasks at hand necessitates coordination," Roman Vassilenko concluded.