The construction of China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railroad (CKU railroad) will promote the integration of China with markets of Central Asia, South Asia, West Asia and Europe, and become a landmark project of more interconnection between China and Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) countries under the framework of "One Belt, One Road". The project will not only complete the transportation system in Asia and Europe, but also create new opportunities to develop the economy after COVID-19.

On September 15-16, the 22nd SCO summit will be held in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Before that, on August 2, Acting Foreign Minister of Uzbekistan Vladimir Norov said that an agreement on the construction of CKU railroad is scheduled to be signed during the meeting. The signing of the agreement will become a major achievement of it.

The construction of CKU railroad has great geopolitical and economic value, especially in the context of global and regional geopolitical changes caused by the Russia-Ukraine conflict. And it has far-reaching significance for the construction of SCO's regional transportation system and its development.

A new engine of economic development in Central Asia

The running of CKU railroad will promote the integration of China with the international markets and become a project of mutual benefit between China and the SCO countries. The operating of the track will not only build up the southern access of the New Asia-Europe Continental Bridge and broaden the scope of transportation, but also change the transportation pattern in the western side of China.

With the developing of the "Belt and Road", Xinjiang plays a more important role. However, Xinjiang’s diversified potential resources in foreign cooperation has not yet been fully released. With the running of CKU railway, Xinjiang will have one more route connected with the international market. It will definitely become a new growth power for Xinjiang's economic development, building up the communication system of Xinjiang as well as the whole western part of China, and speeding up the release of the various resource.

The construction of CKU railroad is conducive to the exports of agricultural and mineral products from Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, and will attract more international investment for these two countries. After the accomplishment, CKU railroad will optimize transportation in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine, improve their railroad capacity. The development of transport industry in these two countries will enable their products to enter Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iran and Turkey and other neighboring countries more quickly. At the same time, the operation and maintenance of CKU railroad can increase employment in Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

For the doubly landlocked Uzbekistan, the CKY railroad will allow its goods to bypass Kazakhstan and enter China, expanding its transportation network and reducing its reliance on Kazakhstan for transit transport. At the same time, the rail corridor will be connected to the Transcaucasus corridor, providing Uzbekistan with the shortest route to Europe. Moreover, Kazakhstan can take this opportunity to build a new integrated economic corridor with production-logistics-freight outlets.

For Kyrgyzstan, where railroads are extremely underdeveloped and cargo transportation depends entirely on roads, the running of CKU railroad will certainly save its transportation time and costs. According to the estimation of Kyrgyz economic experts, after the completion of the railroad, the annual freight volume is expected to reach 13 million tons, of which 20% is in Kyrgyzstan and 80% is in transit to Kyrgyzstan, and Kyrgyzstan can profit from the transit transport by 200 million dollars a year.

A new railroad connected neighbors

The construction of CKU railroad not only benefits China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, but also of great importance to the neighboring countries.

Turkmenistan had been a crossroad of the transport between western and eastern in the ancient time and made important contributions to the Silk Road. Since it independent from the Soviet Union, Turkmenistan has been the first among Central Asian countries to propose the restoration of the old Silk Road. Over the past 30 years, Turkmenistan has been working to implement the strategy of integrating land, sea as well as air transport, and has constructed many railroads both in domestic and that connected with abroad.In addition, six airports, two bridges acrossthe Amu Darya River, a highway and theTurkmenbashi international seaporthave been built in Turkmenistan.At present, Turkmenistan is promoting the "Lapis Lazuli" Road (Afghanistan-Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Turkey), the ”Central Asia-Near East" transport corridor("Uzbekistan-Turkmenistan-Iran-Oman-Qatar"), and the "Caspian-Black Sea" corridor ("Turkmenistan-Azerbaijan-Georgia-Romania"). In a sense, Turkmenistan has the most and the best modern transport infrastructures among the Central Asian countries. But limited by its surroundings, the effectiveness of Turkmenistan’s modern transport system has not yet been fully realized.At present, only the "Kazakhstan-Turkey-Iran" North-South international railroad and Turkmenbashi port have worked.The running of CKU railroad will realize the full transportation potential of Turkmenistan. CKU railroad canincrease one more railway that connected Turkmenistan with China, and will enable Turkmenistan to connect with the Asia-Pacific region through China, which will allow Turkmenistan to be truly integrated into the"One Road, One Region" (the "Silk Road" and the "Caspian Sea Rim") of the Eurasian continent.

Turkey’s national transportation strategy nowadays is aimed at building up the Asian and European continental transportation network and maximize geopolitical interests. On thebase of Caspian Sea "Middle Corridor", the strategy is intended to connect Georgia and Azerbaijan, then enter Central Asia, Afghanistan and Pakistan through the seaports of Kazakhstan or Turkmenistan in the Caspian Sea region, and turn to the east finally arrive China. The Central Asia region is the core of "Middle Corridor" and the "Belt and Road" since there are overlapped areas. The "Middle Corridor" is divided into three tracks in Central Asia: North, Central and South. The North and Central routes are running only through Kazakhstan, while the South route through Uzbekistan and Turkmenistan has not yet been gone through. At the same time, the spillover effects of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict and the January events in Kazakhstan have begun to affect the strategic security of the northern and central tracks of the "Middle Corridor". The running of CKU railroad will quick the construction of southern route of the "Middle Corridor" and deepen the connection between "Belt and Road" transport routes and Turkey’s "Middle Corridor".

A new driver of the "North-South" Corridor

Proposed in 1993, the idea of the “South-North” corridor was realized in September 2000 when Russia, Iran and India signed an agreement to achieve it. Then 14 countries including Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkey joined the agreement. The realizing of the “South-North” corridor proposal, spanned two centuries from its inception to its construction, has not made much progress due to various factors. After the outbreak of Russia-Ukraine conflict, the U.S. and European countries imposed the most severe sanctions on Russia, which jammed the transportation in Russia and accelerated the the construction of the "South-North" transport corridor.

In July 2022, Russian President Vladimir Putin visited Iran, and made the proposal once again became the focus of international transportation. President Vladimir Putin made it clear that Russia would assist the Iran to construct the “Rasht (Iran) - Astara (Azerbaijan)” railway, which is part of the "South-North" transport corridor. The running of that part of the track will connect railroads of Russia, Afghanistan, Iran and India into a network. With the construction of Russia, Iran and India along, the longitudinal “South-North” corridor can not facilitate its surrounding areas most. The running of CKU railroad added the entrances and exits for the “South-North” corridor in latitude and will accelerate the process of “South-North” corridor for certain.

All in all, the signing of CKU railway agreement highlights the SCO spirit of "mutual trust, mutual benefit, equality, consultation, respect for diverse civilizations and the pursuit of common development". The running of the track will complete transport network in Asia and Europe, create new opportunities to restart and boost the economy after Covid-19. For the SCO, the railroad is conductive for its member states and associated countries to jointly "resist the unjust international rules" and build a shared security pattern.

(The authors: Turkmenistan Research Center of Lanzhou University)

The article is from Economic Daily