Paul Goble
Staunton, May 13 – A Chinese firm has won a contract to build a 90 million cubic meter reservoir near Gyumri in Armenia, the latest example of Beijing’s expanding influence in the south Caucasus and one that is not directly involved in the construction of transportation arteries for China’s one road one belt east-west transit corridor.
The Chinese victory was inevitable given that only two firms competed for the project, and both were from China. But this sets the stage for Beijing to expand its participation in other reservoir projects Yerevan has planned over the remainder of this decade (ritmeurasia.org/news--2023-05-13--kitajcy-vyigrali-tender-na-stroitelstvo-kapskogo-vodohranilischa-v-armenii-66280).
The Kap reservoir was originally planned in 1985, but the conflict with Azerbaijan and instability in the region more generally has put it on hold for almost 40 years. Now China with its enormous construction capacity and financial resources is making it possible for Armenia to complete this project.
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