Advancing Middle Corridor Integration: Azerbaijan’s Growing Role as Key Trade Gateway

2026-02-12 - 05:58

The Astana Times provides news and information from Kazakhstan and around the world. On November 25, the first meeting of the Eurasian Transport Route (ETR) International Association under the chairmanship of Azerbaijan was held in Baku. The association’s meeting came amid intensified debates over the geostrategic importance of the Middle Corridor (TITR) transit route, the need to enhance trade flows between East and West, and the diversification of transport routes to enable the ETR to function at full capacity despite the ongoing global security crisis. On the other hand, the ongoing construction of the Uzbekistan–Kyrgyzstan–China railway will further enhance the ETR’s role, thereby strengthening interconnectivity across Central Asia. Fuad Shahbazov. The prevailing geopolitical environment has imparted renewed momentum to the Middle Corridor, alleviating existing logistical constraints and inaugurating a new phase of interconnectivity across Euro‐Asian transportation networks. Since its first steps of establishment in September 2024, Azerbaijan has regarded the ETR as the southern branch of the Middle Corridor connecting China, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye. For that purpose, Azerbaijan, in partnership with other stakeholders, shaped the Middle Corridor not only as a vital transcontinental link but as a framework for economic autonomy within the South Caucasus and Central Asian regions. To enhance multimodal transit and trade, the national rail operators of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, and Georgia established a joint venture, Middle Corridor Multimodal Ltd, in 2023, with China joining in August 2025. Over the last five years, Azerbaijan’s pivot toward Central Asia has become a key pillar of its pragmatic foreign policy. In this vein, President Ilham Aliyev’s most recent visit to Uzbekistan, upon the invitation of his counterpart, Shavkat Mirziyoyev, to attend the Seventh Consultative Meeting of the Heads of State of Central Asia, also known as the C5, marked a significant milestone in the comprehensive partnership between Baku and Central Asian nations. The most consequential outcome of the meeting was Azerbaijan’s formal admission into the C5 format, a development widely regarded as the logical progression in the institutional evolution of this grouping. Through this inclusion, Central Asian states reaffirmed Azerbaijan’s function as a strategic gateway facilitating access to global markets. As such, Azerbaijan’s sustained efforts to develop the trade potential of the Middle Corridor, diversify its economy by concentrating on increasing the country’s transit capacity, and use the leverage of strategically important infrastructure such as the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway, and the fast upgrade of the Alat Sea Port, encouraged other partnering states to join these efforts. As a result of efforts, in the first eleven months of 2025, Azerbaijan Railways CJSC (ADY) handled 350 block trains from China running through Central Asia, including 128 transit trains. This figure represents a 34% increase compared to the same period last year. During the same period, a total of 123,992 TEU of containerized cargo was transported, which is approximately 18% higher than the corresponding figure for 2024. As of Alat Sea Port, the latest figures indicate that between January and November 2025, container turnover at the port reached 96952 TEU, a 40.8% increase from the 68868 TEU recorded in the same period in 2024. In 2025, ADY signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with China’s Xi’an Port covering several key areas: the optimization of container train operations, the improvement of cargo transit times, the enhancement of the Middle Corridor’s capacity, and the modernization of railway and port infrastructure along the corridor. The agreement paves the way for a more intensive partnership across the Caspian Sea, expanding the functionality of the BTK railway line and its efficient integration with the railway networks of Türkiye and Europe, developing a sustainable transport development plan along the Middle Corridor, and attracting more transit cargo to increase freight volumes. Azerbaijan’s expanding role in shaping regional connectivity and trade architecture facilitated the incorporation of Uzbekistan, an actor of particular strategic importance, into the Middle Corridor framework as part of broader efforts to consolidate regional alliances. Since 2020, Uzbekistan’s participation in the corridor has been marked by tangible gains, including the adoption of streamlined customs procedures, the development of intermodal transport linkages between Samarkand and Baku, and the deployment of digital customs platforms designed to accelerate transit flows. While the Middle Corridor continues to serve as a central pillar of Azerbaijan’s revitalized geoeconomic strategy, in