China, Turkiye seek to align BRI with middle corridor
IMEC) and India-Israel-USA-UAE projects, China has launched dialogue across the region seeking to align BRI with Turkiye's Middle Corridor Initiative.
Turkiye had decried IMEC, which is aimed at rivaling BRI in the region and this week's BRI summit in China is expected to witness efforts to align Ankara's Middle Corridor Initiative with BRI. The two sides recently held a high-level dialogue on the issue, ET has learnt.
IMEC was announced on the sidelines of the G20 summit here in the presence of leaders of the USA, Saudi Arabia, India and Europe.
Trans-Caspian East-West-Middle Corridor Initiative shortly named as 'The Middle Corridor', begins in Turkiye and passes through the Caucasus region via Georgia, Azerbaijan, crosses the Caspian Sea, traverses Central Asia and reaches China, according to a Turkish foreign ministry document.
It passes by rail and road respectively through Georgia, Azerbaijan and Caspian Sea (crossing the Caspian transit corridor) and reaches China by following the Turkmenistan-Uzbekistan-Kyrgyzstan or Kazakhstan route, according to the document.
On this route, ports of Baku/Alat (in Azerbaijan), Aktau/Kuryk (in Kazakhstan) and Turkmenbashi (in Turkmenistan) are the main points of multimodal transport on the Caspian transit corridor. The Middle Corridor that overlaps BRI is yet to get traction even as Turkiye is trying to attract the landlocked countries of Eurasia since the Ukraine war.
Since the conflict, the landlocked Central Asian states are not able to trade with Europe via Russia due to restrictions.
With the US influence across West Asia on decline, China has upped the ante trying to deepen political contacts. Beijing is hosting party-to-party dialogue with West Asia in regular
