BAKU, Azerbaijan, November 1. There is an increased urgency to identify alternative reliable efficient trade routes between Europe and Asia, European Commission official told Trend.
The official said that the EU has been steadily stepping up its engagement on connectivity with partner countries in its Eastern Neighbourhood, Turkey and Central Asia in the past years, including with extending the Trans-European Transport network (TEN-T) and adopting the Indicative Investment Action Plan for the Eastern Partnership countries of January 2019, the EU Strategy on Central Asia of June 2019 and the EU’s Global Gateway strategy of December 2021. The TEN-T extension remains a priority in the EU’s neighbouring regions, including in Azerbaijan and Turkey who are connected by the priority Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway project.
One of the actions taken under the Global Gateway strategy is also a study on sustainable transport connections between Central Asia and Europe ("Europe" in the meaning of the extended TEN-T). Following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, this study has now sharply increased its geopolitical importance in the sense that there is now an increased urgency to identify alternative reliable efficient trade routes between Europe and Asia that do not go through Russia,” the official said.
They noted that indeed, traffic along the previously dominant Northern Corridor between Asia/China and Europe through Russia has dropped significantly this year, with operators switching to more reliable alternative routes, such as the Middle Corridor through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey/Black Sea.
They pointed out that identifying and solving key issues and bottlenecks on this route would greatly facilitate Europe-Asia transport links, as well as prepare the ground for increased trade and transport links between the countries of Central Asia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.
“It is important that the development of transport connections between Europe and Central Asia through the Caucasus contribute to sustainable economic development of the entire region, which is of key importance in the EU’s approach to regional connectivity,” they said.