THE ROLE OF MIDDLE CORRIDOR IN ONE-BELT ONE-ROAD INITIATIVE IN THE CONTEXT OF UKRAINE-RUSSIA WA
THE ROLE OF MIDDLE CORRIDOR IN ONE-BELT ONE-ROAD INITIATIVE IN THE CONTEXT OF UKRAINE-RUSSIA WA

Summary/Abstract: In XXI century, the government of China announces new economic initiative “One Belt One Road” which is considered as the restoration of old Silk Road. The main aim of this new initiative is economic convergence between Asia and Europe. One of the most important factors in “One Belt One Road” is identifying those short routes which makes it easier transporting goods from Asia to Europe. After the Russian invasion in Ukraine in 2022, situation radically changed. It became necessary identifying new routes which should be shorter and cheaper. One such linking route can be considered The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR) known as the 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, Turkey, and Eastern Europe. It is an alternative to the Northern Corridor, to the north through Russian, and the Ocean Route to the south, via the Suez Canal. Geographically, the Middle Corridor is the shortest route between Western China and Europe. It is undergoing major developments in parts, with the Trans-Kazakhstan railroad completed in 2014 and the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway operational in 2017. The replacement process of old route (northern corridor) with new one (middle corridor) is politically decisions. But in this process several factors must be considered. One is supply-side policy which suggests that growth in transcontinental containerized rail transport is politically feasible. However, demand-side factors suggest that trade developmentpotential is largely limited to greater extraregional connectivity from the Middle Corridor economies with little economic rationale for increased PRC–Europe transcontinental freight flows.

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