The European Commission has launched its Connectivity Agenda Platform, aiming to route Asian trade around Russia and a war-torn Iran. Kazakh President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev met with Ursula von der Leyen and António Costa in Brussels on June 23 to discuss the initiative.
The Trans-Caspian route, also known as the Middle Corridor, is considered a vital bridge between Europe and Asia by Jozef Síkela, the commissioner for international partnerships.
Investment in the corridor is significant, with the Development Bank of Kazakhstan signing financing agreements worth close to $1 billion with the European Investment Bank and a syndicate of Commerzbank, JPMorgan Chase, and Standard Chartered.
Marta Kos, the enlargement commissioner, stated that the aim is to make Europe’s supply lines more secure through the platform, which arrived with letters of intent from development banks worth up to 2 billion euros.
They plan to increase security by investing in the corridor.
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Tokayev announced that his government has spent over $35 billion on transport and logistics over 15 years, with annual cargo on the corridor rising fivefold since 2019 to 4.1 million tonnes.
The target is to reach 10 million tonnes of cargo per year, according to Tokayev, who also noted that the corridor has drawn massive momentum after the Strait of Hormuz crisis.
Waqar Ahmad, head of Nazarbayev University in Astana, said that the corridor has drawn “massive momentum” after the Strait of Hormuz crisis.
In May, KTZ Express, the freight arm of Kazakhstan’s national railway, ordered six vessels for the Caspian, each able to carry up to 537 containers.
Friedrich Conradi of the Carnegie Russia Eurasia Center warned that the corridor could prove a dead end due to its limited gateway to Europe through Georgia.
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The Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, the western spine of the corridor, is already running at its limit, with traffic jumping 35 per cent in a single week in 2025.
Rovshan Rustamov, chairman of Azerbaijan Railways, stated that the priority for 2026 is efficient, predictable eastbound delivery to address the issue of containers returning to Asia half-empty.
Woldemar Walter of the German Economic Team reported that freight forwarders will pay a premium for the corridor only when the service runs to time, which is often not the case.
A 40-foot container costs between $3,500 and $4,500 through the middle route, compared to $2,800 to $3,200 through Russia.
For now, the trains keep running on the northern line through Russia, with container traffic between China and Europe growing by roughly half in 2025.