The 7,500km East Caspian East-West Corridor is an ambitious project by Turkey to unite the Turkic-speaking countries of Asia, moving along China’s Silk Road, making Turkey the western end of Asia that will connect by land trade route to the Eastern tip of Asia.
The Super Caspian Corridor, as a project started in 2019, reduces by 2,000 km the northern part of the Belt Route Initiative (BRI) and now shows the shortest route between Europe and East Asia. This trade corridor allows the transportation of goods from the Northeastern port of Lianyungang in China via Xinjiang to Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.
China-Turkey trade has reached $ 26 billion by 2020, with more than a thousand Chinese companies operating in Turkey, with Chinese consortia holding 65% of the stake in Turkey’s third largest port. At the same time, Turkey is seeking to participate in the International North-South Transport Corridor (INSTC), believing that in this way it will receive even more long-term funding from China to offset the reduction in foreign investment in the country from the West.
INSTC is a corridor spanning 12 nations. It starts in Russia, India and ends in Iran. In addition, it crosses countries such as Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan, Ukraine, Syria, Belarus, Oman and Bulgaria. The only country left out is Turkey.
