According to World Bank estimates, Central Asian countries remain among the least connected economies in the world, has a negative impact on their well-being. At the same time, the region's share of global revenues from transport service exports does not exceed 1%. For this reason, creating and promoting on a mutually beneficial basis effective transit corridors that allow connecting the largest world markets through Central Asia has been prioritized today. One such corridor is the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITR), also known as the Middle Corridor, which is involved in the East-West-East land connection.
In the current realities, the European Union (EU) has the greatest practical interest in the infrastructural development of this route. Within the framework of the Global Gateway initiative for the Central Asian republics, financial assistance in the amount of €10 billion has been announced. At the high-level Central Asia-European Union Summit on April 4, 2025, in Samarkand, the EU announced a further investment package for €12 billion. A quarter of this amount will be used to finance transport projects.
This dynamic is expected to contribute to the development formation of an extensive supply network stretching from Central Asia to Europe and beyond.
The intensification of trans-Caspian transport offers a range of geopolitical and geo-economic advantages.
First. Central Asia has a unique opportunity to transform itself into a Eurasian transit hub. This would strengthen the region's international subjectivity, which is crucial for establishing equal relations with influential actors of world politics.
Second. Expanding the potential of the Middle Corridor aligns with the national transportation strategies of Central Asian countries, which aim to diversify foreign trade flows. Developing freight transport in the west enables the region to reduce its dependence on northern routes and open up new export markets.
Third. The transport landscape of Central Asia is being radically transformed through the launch of new interregional trade routes, providing a solid foundation for strengthening intraregional connectivity and reducing the cost of transporting goods.
Fourth. Trans-Caspian transport facilitates to the expansion of trade, economic and investment cooperation with the EU, the countries of the South Caucasus and Turkey, which gives an additional impetus to Central Asia's development.
However, as recent studies have shown, for several objective reasons, the Middle Corridor cannot provide equal transit benefits to all five Central Asian republics. This is due to the disproportionate distribution of the potential West-oriented cargo flow among them. Kazakhstan accounts for more than 93% of the total volume, while Turkmenistan’s share is 3%, Uzbekistan 2.3%, Kyrgyzstan 1.1%, and Tajikistan only 0.03%. It follows that the improvement of TITR has a positive impact on the economic development of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan as the shortest and most convenient trade route to the EU. For Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Uzbekistan, the Middle Corridor is one of the additional routes that will contribute to the diversification of export-import supplies with Southern Europe, the United States, Canada, and other foreign trade partners.
* The Institute for Advanced International Studies (IAIS) does not take institutional positions on any issues; the views represented herein are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the IAIS.
