BAKU, Azerbaijan, April 13. The implementation of the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR, or Middle Corridor) and the EU's role in this project would be most successful if TITR became a truly economic corridor, including energy and industrial activities along the route and providing real added value to the economies of the countries involved in it, as the article by a researcher at the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) said in Trend reports.
According to the information, the article is titled Risk and Reward: Why the EU Should Develop the Middle Corridor Trade Route."
Rizzi believes that to strengthen the EU's role as a major geo-economic player in the Caspian region, the EU needs to go beyond the development of transportation infrastructure alone.
"The Middle Corridor would be most successful if it became a true economic corridor, incorporating energy and industrial activities along the transportation route and providing real added value to local economies. Europe should therefore expand existing energy partnerships, focusing more on the region's renewable potential, as the 'greening' of Central Asian economies will reduce their demand for Russian gas or electricity, which will curb Moscow's role," the European analyst believes.
He believes that to maximize the development opportunities of the Middle Corridor, the EU should accompany infrastructure investments with a proposal for broader economic engagement that would allow countries along the corridor to participate in European value chains.
"This would transform the Middle Corridor from an overland trade channel between the EU and China into a potential risk mitigation tool for Europe, replacing part of Chinese trade with trade with Central Asian countries," the researcher notes in the article.
He noted that the EU can and should use the Middle Corridor as
leverage on two fronts.
"First, the European Commission could link investments in the
Middle Corridor to Central Asian countries' compliance with EU
export controls so that these countries do not circumvent EU
sanctions against Russia. The second is to improve interaction with
Türkiye because Türkiye is the entry point of the Middle Corridor
to Europe and Türkiye is interested in benefiting from its
development," the expert points out.
In his opinion, the Europeans should convince Ankara that it will continue to play a primary role in the EU's external relations, particularly through the Middle Corridor, and then the EU will get an ally in the person of Türkiye for the realization of European ambitions on TITR and the subsequent development of partnerships with the countries of the Caspian Sea and Central Asia.
"Brussels should focus on the enormous potential that the development of the Middle Corridor can bring in terms of deepening economic, political, and energy ties with Central Asia... Europe's newfound Central Asian partnerships may well contain the competing influences of Russia and China in the region, and the TITR could help the EU," Rizzi underlined.
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