A few days remain before Trump takes office as President of the United States, and he is called upon to solve a series of serious problems in his country’s foreign policy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Trump faces the Kurdish issue<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Among these are negotiations with Putin to end the war in Ukraine, ending the war in the Gaza Strip, and determining the US stance in Syria, with a prominent issue being whether or not to continue providing security to the Syrian Kurds of the SDF, whom Trump’s “friend” and “admirer”, Erdogan, wants to eliminate, fearing the creation of a semi-autonomous Kurdish formation in Northern Syria, similar to that of Northern Iraq.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Turks see such a prospect as dramatically increasing the chances of creating a Kurdish state, which would mean the secession of the southeastern provinces of their country, where the overwhelming majority of Kurds live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to the above, the situation regarding the SDF issue becomes even more complicated for Trump, since Israel, the strongest ally of the US in the Middle East, has sided with them, which it is worth noting is currently being verbally threatened by Turkey, with relations between Ankara and Tel Aviv being more than hostile, while several analysts “see” a military confrontation between Israel and Turkey as very likely in the future.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, there is also a new very important parameter for the US and Trump’s support or not against the Syrian Kurds and the creation of a Kurdish state, since Turkey is bringing China into the game!<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turkey takes on China over Kurdish issue via Belt and Road<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n A Turkish official has revealed that China is interested in helping Ankara modernize its railway network with an investment of around $60 billion.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Burak Daglioglu, Chairman of Turkey\u2019s government-run \u201cInvest in Turkey\u201d promotion agency, shared details about proposed upgrades to his country\u2019s railway network.<\/p>\n\n\n\n These upgrades include electrification of existing lines, construction of new domestic lines, a bridge in Istanbul and a high-speed rail line connecting Istanbul to Ankara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Developing Turkey\u2019s railway infrastructure is seen as a key element in China\u2019s \u201cBelt and Road\u201d initiative to connect Europe and Asia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turkey was among the first countries to support the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI).<\/p>\n\n\n\n In 2015, Turkey and China formalized their cooperation through a memorandum of understanding, aiming to synchronize the BRI with the Middle Corridor Initiative.<\/p>\n\n\n\n China\u2019s state-owned CRRC Zhuzhou Electric Locomotive, which already operates a factory in Turkey, is expected to play a role in the upgrades. The company made its mark in Istanbul last year, unveiling the city\u2019s fastest metro train.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daglioglu expressed confidence in China’s interest, saying: “They are interested in the projects\u2026 As long as they offer a competitive bid in the tender, they are welcome to participate. There is huge potential for railway investments.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Significant Chinese investment in Turkey<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to railway investments, China has also shown interest in Turkey’s technology sector, particularly electric vehicles and energy projects.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As of mid-2024, Chinese investment in Turkey totaled US$6 billion, spread across 1,300 companies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tourism is another area of \u200b\u200bgrowing cooperation between the two nations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Daglioglu noted that 300,000 Chinese tourists visited Turkey in 2024, a slight increase from the previous year but still below the 500,000 number before the pandemic in 2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ankara is working to expand its tourism cooperation with Chinese provinces to raise awareness and attract more visitors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Turkey aims to establish itself as a key rail hub for Eurasian trade<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Turkey is positioning itself as a central hub for Eurasian trade, particularly as Europeans seek alternatives to the Russian route due to the ongoing war in Ukraine.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite growing interest in alternative routes, the China-Europe rail freight network still relies heavily on the route through Russia.<\/p>\n\n\n\n More than 90% of rail traffic between China and Europe uses the Northern Corridor, which passes through Russia and Belarus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, EU sanctions and Kremlin-imposed retaliation are causing concern.<\/p>\n\n\n\n For example, Italians raised concerns last year that containers traveling on the China-Europe railway were stopped in Russia for inspections to ensure they did not contain goods on the country\u2019s embargo list.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Moscow explained that while some transit cargo from China destined for the EU faced additional checks, such cases were infrequent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Most shipments that underwent additional checks have since been cleared for delivery beyond Russia\u2019s customs borders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Russia facilitated rail cargo deliveries from China to the EU<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n In fact, Russia continued to facilitate rail transit of cargo through its territory in a formal manner, without imposing additional controls on shipments unless deemed necessary.<\/p>\n\n\n\n According to reports, rail transit deliveries from China to the EU via Russia increased in 2024 compared to 2023.<\/p>\n\n\n\n However, the capacity of Russian railways has proven insufficient to meet the growing demand for rail traffic between China and Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Middle Corridor of the “Belt and Road”<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n As a result, increasing focus has been placed on the development of the Middle Corridor, where Turkey is positioned to play a crucial role.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Middle Corridor is a much shorter route compared to the Northern Corridor, which runs from China through Central Asia, the Caspian Sea, the southern Caucasus and Turkey to Europe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As Europe also seeks to reduce its dependence on Russia, Turkey is keen to present itself as a viable alternative through this corridor.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite this potential, Turkey\u2019s rail infrastructure remains a \u201cweak link\u201d in the wider network between China and Europe. Any disruption on this route could jeopardize the entire system.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The enormous importance of the Kurdish territories<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n From the above, we understand the enormous importance of the implementation of the Middle Route of the “Belt and Road” through Turkey, its southeastern provinces inhabited by Kurds, through which Chinese goods destined for the EU will pass by rail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In general, the creation of a Kurdish state, a US-Israeli protectorate, which will include territories from Northern Iraq, NE Syria and SE Turkey, will deprive China of the Middle Route of the “Belt and Road”, significantly downgrading the geopolitical importance of Turkey.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Therefore, it is in Trump’s interest to continue supporting the Syrian Kurds SDF and the creation of a Kurdish state, since this is an important stepping stone for maintaining US global dominance over China.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" A few days remain before Trump takes office as President of the United States, and he is called upon to solve a series of…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22411,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[836,3,834],"tags":[161,1085,143,70],"class_list":["post-22410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-asia-geopolitical","category-geopolitical","category-middle-east-geopolitical","tag-china","tag-kurds","tag-turkey","tag-usa"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=22410"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22410\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22414,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22410\/revisions\/22414"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/22411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=22410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=22410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.liberalglobe.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=22410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}