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THE NORTH-SOUTH INTERNATIONAL TRANSPORTATION CORRIDOR: PROBLEMS AND PROSPECTS
Alexander MUKHIN
Vladimir MESAMED
Alexander Mukhin, Senior lecturer, Department of Oriental Studies, Astrakhan State University (Russia)
Vladimir Mesamed, Research associate, Harry Truman Institute at Jerusalem Jewish University (Israel); represents the
Central Asia and the Caucasus journal in the Middle East
The idea of linking Europe and Asia along the Volga and across the Caspian Sea is an old one. Back in the 17th century Peter the Great never lost sight of the Volga while making his thrust toward Europe: the river route started at St. Petersburg and went all the way to the Caspian. It was his ambition to turn Russia into a great naval power; the Caspian had an important role to play in his plans: through it he hoped to establish trade contacts with India.
The Astrakhan Local Lore Museum provides information on Caspian navigation and fishing; Iranian and Indian merchants crossed the sea to settle in Astrakhan. Their houses can still be seen in the city’s center. The isolationism that came with Soviet power in 1917 closed the route to Europe across the sea and along the Volga. Until the early 1990s about 2 million tons of international freight did cross the sea and reach Baku from Iran. In the wake of the Soviet Union’s disintegration land transit along the formerly safe routes became hazardous because of the geopolitical changes that crippled Russia’s interests in the region, the long-drawn-out attempts to settle the Caspian’s legal status, and the political instability and conflicts raging in the Northern and Southern Caucasus.
The rapid economic development of the East and Southeast Asian countries in the last quarter of the 20th century increased trade turnover with Europe and required new faster and cheaper trade routes. Early in the 1990s trade turnover between the two continents accounted for over a third of the world’s total. This coincided with the radical political changes in Eastern Europe, Russia, Central Asia, and the Caucasus, which produced new independent states and new markets.
In view of this, the ESCAP, aided by the U.N., drew up several projects for possible transportation corridors to Europe across the Russian Federation, Central Asia, the Caspian, Northern Iran, the Caucasus, the Black Sea ports, Turkey, and Bulgaria. Some of the routes are now in use while freight turnover along them is still much lower than along the……………………….
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