"Lazurite corridor": What are the possible risks and challenges? - comments Rizvan Huseynov
The international
expert club "EurAsiaAz", which positions itself as an information and
analytical platform for experts from Eurasian and Euro-Atlantic countries,
launched a virtual expert discussion on the topic "Lazurite Corridor:
Challenges and Opportunities for the South Caucasus and Central Asia."
Political experts, political scientists, economists from the South Caucasus and
Central Asia take part in the discussion.
The first guest of our
project is Rizvan Huseynov, Director
of the Center for History of the Caucasus, Senior Researcher at the Institute
of Law and Human Rights of National Academy of Sciences of Azerbaijan.
- What is the meaning
and what opportunities does the Lazurite Corridor offer to the countries
participating in the project?
- Azerbaijan is consistently transforming from
an oil and gas producing state into one of the alternative sources of gas
supplies to Europe, the main author of the creation of the Southern Gas
Corridor, including the construction of the Trans-Anatolian (TANAP) and
Trans-Adriatic (TAP) pipelines. Investments in the amount of $ 45 billion will
be invested in these projects.
No less important is given to transit projects
like West-East, which has already linked China with Europe and South-North
through Azerbaijan and neighboring countries, which through Azerbaijan can link
the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Finland. Great interest in Azerbaijan is also
shown in the “Lazurite Corridor” project, which runs through Afghanistan,
Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey and further to Europe. In the
framework of the recent visit of Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev to Ashgabat
and his meetings with his Turkmen counterpart, a number of documents on the
development of the transport “Lazurite Corridor” were signed.
This project will give an additional impetus to
the development of trade and transit opportunities, both in the countries participating
in the project and in Romania and other countries of Eastern Europe.
- What are the
possible risks and challenges?
- An important factor in the implementation of
the Lazurite Corridor is the expansion of Sino-Pakistani economic relations, the
main vector of which is Chinese investment in order to build a railway network
and other transit routes through Pakistan with access to the Persian Gulf. This
corridor will allow through the Persian Gulf, Iran and Azerbaijan to provide
more efficient delivery of goods from China to Europe. Although there are still
many questions regarding Iran, which took a wait-and-see attitude, for it
signed projects on building a transit branch India, Afghanistan-Iran, which
India is lobbying, jealous of China’s desire to build a route through Pakistan.
Against this background, a new Pak-Indian conflict is already brewing,
threatening to escalate into a military confrontation.
- How do you assess
the possibility of other countries joining the Lazurite Corridor?
- I note that the economic power of the
Atlanticists (countries of America and Western Europe) is based on the control
of ocean and sea supplies. Therefore, Western countries are wary of new land
transit projects in Eurasia, which may inflict damage on the Western marine
transport and economic hegemony.
After all, there is a considerable chance that
the new land railway routes can restore the former power of the medieval “Great
Silk Road” - the network of transit corridors that once connected the wide
expanses of Asia and Europe. Previously, it was believed that rail
transportation cannot compete with maritime transport, which is cheaper and
allows to transport much more cargo at a time.
However, now, in the light of the protracted
global financial and economic crisis, the need for the supply of goods in huge
quantities has been significantly reduced. Moreover, transcontinental railway
corridors make it possible to deliver cargo several times faster than sea
vessels, moreover, to do it in a short way, bypassing the long journey through
the seas and oceans. Mobility, efficiency and lesser dependence on intermediary
countries makes railway deliveries increasingly attractive. However, such an
alignment of forces concerns the Atlantic bloc, most of whose countries see a
threat in restoring the Silk Road for their economic and military-political
interests. Therefore, the United States and Western Europe will continue to
impede the implementation of large land corridors that may pose a threat to
maritime transport.
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