Paul
Goble
Staunton, April 8 – Less than two weeks
from now, a rail bridge linking Azerbaijan and Iran is set to open, the next
step toward the establishment of a North-South trade corridor between Russia
and Iran later this year that has the potential to transform the geopolitics
not only of the Caucasus but of southwest Asia more generally.
On the one hand, this corridor,
which is to pass along the western shore of the Caspian Sea, will further
reduce the importance of Armenia and Georgia to Moscow and likely increase the
Russian tilt toward Azerbaijan. And on the other, it will make possible more
rapid and less expensive shipment of goods between Europe and Asia than the
current Suez route.
This new North-South corridor, one
that Moscow has long pushed but that had been on hold because of international
sanctions against Iran for its nuclear program, is the subject of a detailed report
by Olga Samofalova in Moscow’s “Vzglyad” newspaper (vz.ru/economy/2016/4/7/804116.html).
“The transportation corridor from
Russia to Iran via Azerbaijan is an important part of the larger North-South
project which was frozen in connection with the imposition by the West of
sanctions on Iran. With the lifting of sanctions, the Russian journalist says, “the
realization of this project again became achievable.”
This larger project, she continues,
is intended to handle freight “from India, Iran and other countries of the Persian
Gulf onto Russian territory via the Caspian Sea and further to northern and
western Europe.” The rail line will allow
goods to pass this way in 14 days rather than the 40 days now required if the
goods go through the crowded Suez Canal.
The opening of the rail bridge
between Azerbaijan and Iran is slated for April 20, Azerbaijani officials say,
who add that they expect to complete all work linking the Azerbaijani and
Iranian rail networks before the end of this year, despite all construction
difficulties arising from a most difficult topography.
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