Georgia’s Transit Corridor and its Neighboring Countries
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Date
2022-05-11
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Abstract
Since the early years of independence, Georgia has been involved in TRACECA (Transport Corridor Europe-Caucasus-Asia), established in 1993 at the initiative of the European Union in order to diversify transport corridors passing through Russia and promote the independent development of Post-Soviet states.
Georgia’s favorable transport-geographical location at the crossroads of Europe and Asia creates beneficial conditions for the Transcaucasian corridor development.
Georgia’s railway, sea, automobile and pipeline transports are fully involved in transport corridors. In the 21-st century, new transport flows passing through Georgia joined the Transcaucasian corridor:
• Baku–Supsa and Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan oil pipelines;
• Baku-Tbilisi-Erzurum (Shah Deniz) and North-South (Russia-Georgia-Armenia) gas pipelines;
• Baku-Tbilisi-Kars Railway, which is the part of “Iron Silk Road”;
• Trans-Caspian East-West Middle Corridor.
Georgia is interested in involvement in the transport corridor project “Chinese Initiative - One Belt - One Road” (BRI) and tries to persuade partner countries of the reliability, safety, cheapness and flexibility of routes passing through Georgia.
China is looking for the shortest and most profitable routes to implement the project, while some other countries are trying to get involved in the project expecting to profit from transit cargo passing through them.
In the research, issues of expediency of relocation to Georgian territory of cargo flowing from China and Central Asian countries to Europe via Russia are discussed; the turnover of the Transcaucasian corridor by types of transport is examined and the geography of cargo is discussed.
Military and political conflicts hamper unhindered cargo flows. Thus, the relocation of cargo flows to the
Georgian multimodal corridor will create increased safety guarantees for producer countries, while for Georgia, economic benefits from attracting cargo and increasing its volume will increase the budget revenues.
To reach this goal, Georgia has to attract partner countries with guaranteed protection of the cargo, fast shipment, the safety of routes and high capacity
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Keywords
TRACECA, Georgia, transport corridor, BRI, Turkey, Azerbaijan
Citation
36th ISTANBUL International Conference on “Arts, Literature, Humanities and Social Sciences”