An article by Vladimir Rozanskij, published on the website of the Italian news agency Asia News, examines the growing strategic importance of the Middle Corridor amid the ongoing regional crisis. Caliber.Az reprints the article with minor adaptations.
China is seriously intent on radically and irreversibly increasing freight traffic to Europe via the international Trans-Caspian route, better known as the Middle Corridor.
This is no longer simply an alternative route or a contingency plan in the event of a crisis; it is a global strategic project which, if successfully implemented, will completely eliminate the monopoly of the northern routes and radically change the entire architecture of Eurasian logistics in the 21st century.
Against a backdrop of profound changes in global politics, the Middle Corridor is becoming the continent’s main artery, directly linking Asian production capacity with European consumer markets via Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
The main reason for Beijing’s strategic reorientation towards the south is the toxicity, unreliability and vulnerability of the Russian route to sanctions.
After 2022, major Western companies, multinationals and logistics giants began to abandon transit through Russia en masse, citing cargo insurance issues and political unpredictability.
The traditional Northern Corridor has suddenly turned into a sanctions trap, whilst maritime routes through the Red Sea and the Suez Canal have faced a systemic security crisis due to ongoing Houthi attacks and general military tensions in the Middle East. Sea freight rates and insurance premiums on maritime routes have skyrocketed, whilst transit times have lengthened due to the need to circumnavigate Africa via the Cape of Good Hope.
In these circumstances, the Central Corridor offers unique logistical opportunities, and Azerbaijan plays a key and irreplaceable role in this new landscape.
The Alat International Commercial Seaport and the Baku–Tbilisi–Kars railway, in which the Azerbaijanis have invested heavily in modernisation, have significantly increased capacity, and container traffic along the Corridor is expected to grow exponentially in the period 2026–2027, with transit volumes in some segments rising by 450–500 per cent compared with previous periods.
In recent years, relations between Baku and Beijing have reached a qualitatively new and unprecedented level. In 2025, Azerbaijan and China signed the Declaration on the Establishment of a Comprehensive Strategic Partnership.
Beijing has moved from words to deeds, investing substantial financial and technological capital in Azerbaijan’s infrastructure, port facilities and digital logistics ecosystem.
A crucial practical step in this integration was the entry of the Chinese state-owned company China Railways Container Transport Corporation into the joint venture Middle Corridor Multimodal Ltd.
The Middle Corridor is completely reshaping the geopolitical landscape of Eurasia, offering the participating countries – Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Georgia and Türkiye – a historic opportunity to free themselves once and for all from their role as ‘transit appendages’ and become independent actors.
China gains a stable land route to its main markets, protected from external interference, whilst Europe achieves reliable diversification of supplies and finally frees itself from dependence on Russia.
