Russian location: the emergence of a rival to the Suez Canal in Central Asia

According to the Russian Ministry of Economic Development, the volume of cargo traffic passing along the North-South International Transport Corridor route, which connects Russia with Central Asian countries, doubled to 2.3 million tons in the first quarter of this year.

In his report published by the Russian website Retm Eurasia, Marat Nurgozhayev says that in the same period last year, the number of deliveries along the corridor doubled, 3 times for the Caspian part and 33 times for the eastern part.

Russia and Azerbaijan are currently working on the development of the western part of the corridor. Last year, he said, about 7 million tons of goods were transported through the Samur-Palama checkpoint on the Russian-Azerbaijani border.

Road cargo traffic is set to increase to 15 to 17 million tonnes per year by 2030.

Turkmenistan, Russia and Iran, on the other hand, are developing the eastern part of the corridor, he added. This year, the Russian railway company and its counterparts in Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Iran decided to use the infrastructure of the eastern corridor.

International
Transport Corridor Moreover, a recent investment project was launched aimed at establishing a logistics center for Turkmenistan in the port part of the Caspian Special Economic Zone in order to double the transport of goods through the Caspian Sea.

Taking all the mentioned indicators into account, the site pointed out that the "North-South" corridor could become in the near future the new Suez Canal and its real competitor, due to the growing interest in the development of the international transport corridor as a "new logistical" element by Central Asian and other countries.

Accordingly, in April last year, within the framework of the International Transport and Logistics Exhibition "TransRussia 2023", a memorandum was signed between the Kazakh transport and logistics company KTZ Express and the Transport and Logistics Center of Turkmenistan on a joint transport development project, the purpose of which is to establish a single logistics operator on the eastern line of the North-South International Transport Corridor.

The parties agreed to unite their efforts and competencies with a view to establishing competitive tariff rates and smooth transportation of goods from Kazakhstan, Russia and Turkmenistan to Iran, India, the Middle East and the Asia-Pacific region, with the participation of the Aksarapskaya station, the city of Uzenki, Polashak, Ebnizh Brun, Ferns and vice versa.

It is for these reasons that the "North-South" corridor for Astana has become one of the main motives for the development of economic and transport relations with Russia as well as Iran and India.

The report concluded that the international transport corridor is of particular importance to the Eurasian Economic Union, as it represents an important alternative corridor under the policy of collective punishment practiced by the West, and it is an integral part of the process of creating a multipolar world.