China – Kazakhstan: Middle Corridor Goes into Operation

China’s global transportation initiative, the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), also commonly known as the New Silk Road, is beginning to take on clear characteristics. China and Kazakhstan have reached an agreement on the pilot shipment of cargo along the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (TITM), the so-called “Middle Corridor,” a component of the BRI, a rail and maritime network running through the Central Corridor. The Asian countries cross the Caspian Sea on ferries, arriving in the Caucasian republics of Azerbaijan and Georgia to finally connect China to Russia, Turkey, and southern European markets.

The agreement was harmonized during a visit to Beijing by Kazakhstan’s Transport Minister Marat Karabayev, who was received by his Chinese counterpart Liu Wei (pictured) for talks. It was decided to start a series of tests that would begin with an experimental shipment of the first batch of lithium-ion batteries through the TMTM line. During the meeting of ministers it was emphasized that “the volume of rail freight traffic between China and Kazakhstan over the past ten months increased by 13% and reached 26.6 million tons.”

As for road transport, freight traffic grew by as much as 60%, reaching 1.9 million tons in the third quarter of 2024. China and Kazakhstan agreed to jointly develop the “Transport Corridor”: a permanent working group will be established to speed up the commissioning of this strategic transport corridor. Karabayev and Liu also discussed the possibility of opening new routes for cargo transportation over cross-border rivers between Kazakhstan and Russia.