Middle Corridor (Trans-Caspian International Transport Route)

The headquarters of the Association of Carriers "Middle Corridor" at the end of 2022 is located in Astana.

As of July 2022

2025

Ukraine's strikes on CPC infrastructure to redirect Kazakh oil exports from Novorossiysk to Baku

In November 2025, Ukraine, under the control of Western countries, attacked the infrastructure of the CPC in Novorossiysk, through which the bulk of oil exports from Kazakhstan go. The task is to redirect flows to the Trans-Caspian route. See Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC) for details.

Prior to the destruction by Ukrainian drones of one of the three berthing installations of the CPC on the Black Sea, about 6 million tons of oil from Kazakhstan or 72 million tons of oil per year were received monthly through this system through Novorossiysk against 1.4 million tons of raw materials going to Baku.

The main problem of Transcaspia is the shallowing of the reservoir of the same name, which in 2025 alone required the allocation of funds in the amount of 42 billion tenge (about $80 million) to deepen the bottom near the port of Aktau. Moreover, a further decrease in the level of the "sea" is predicted.

This, in turn, leads to the underloading of tankers traveling from Kazakh ports to Azerbaijan. Otherwise, ships risk running aground, and therefore have to sacrifice potential volumes of export oil.

And in itself, the cost of logistics is significantly higher than through the CPC system, and is approximately $15 per 1 barrel against $5 to Novorossiysk. And here the cost of unloading in Baku and further transportation by rail through the territory of Azerbaijan and Georgia to the port of Poti is not yet taken into account.

Azerbaijan, Georgia and Kazakhstan agree on a single tariff for transportation

At the Silk Road forum in Tbilisi in October 2025, Prime Azerbaijan Minister Ali Asadov announced the introduction of Azerbaijan, Georgia Kazakhstan and a single tariff for transportation along the Middle Corridor and joint modernization of ports and railways.

Tariff unification and digitalization should make transit predictable and beneficial for external players, primarily for representatives of Turkey and the EU interested in the new supply line.

Launch of container terminals in Aktau and Poti

In October 2025, it became known that the EBRD and the EU Investment Fund plan to allocate $52.8 million for the modernization of the infrastructure of the Kazakh port of Aktau, after which the annual processing of containers should reach a volume of 230 thousand units.

Statements about plans to expand the capabilities of the Kazakh port were made against the background of the early commissioning of the container hub in Aktau.

At the same time, a container terminal was launched in the Georgian port of Poti, which is also part of the initiative of the Trans-Caspian route.

Bulgarian Burgas and Varna joined the Georgian and Kazakh ports. The corresponding agreement was signed by Tokayev and Rumen Radev in Astana.

Also, the launch of the second line of the transit railway from China - Dostyk-Moyynty - was reported in Akorda. This was directly connected with the transformation of Kazakhstan "into one of the main transit hubs of Eurasia." Now it is expected that the volume of cargo transportation will increase fivefold.

Despite the considerable efforts of the leadership of Kazakhstan and European funds, the further development of transit will require more and more financial investments.

Such a forecast is made on the basis of the ongoing shallowing of the Caspian, which forces you to constantly spend money on deepening the bottom in the port zone. If this is not done, then container ships risk running aground.

To these problems, low profitability is added in comparison with the cheaper and more profitable North-South route, which is successfully developing with the participation of Russia. This project retains much more potential for transit through Asia to Europe than TMTM.

2023: Meetings of the heads of Turkey, Georgia, USA, Uzbekistan, Turmenistan, the European Council on the issue of the corridor bypassing Russia

In mid-September 2023, President Turkey Recep Erdogan USA met with Prime Minister Georgia Irakli Garibashvili on the sidelines of the summit, where he discussed, including the project for the implementation of the "Middle Corridor."

The American media actively covered the meeting of the heads of Central Asian countries with US President Joe Biden in September in the framework of the C5 + 1 format in New York. The Wall Street Journal noted that the White House's interest in the region is due to the need to create alternative logistics routes bypassing Russia, noting the role of the Middle Corridor.

Also on the sidelines of the UN summit, the presidents of Uzbekistan Shavkat Mirziyoyev and Turkmenistan Serdar Berdimuhamedow met with the representative of the European Council Charles Michel (who switched attention from Transcaucasia to Central Asia). As in the case of Biden, Charles Michel paid special attention to the importance of developing effective transport corridors, also mentioning the Trans-Caspian multimodal corridor as a priority area of ​ ​ cooperation.

Kazakh President Kassym Zhomart-Tokayev summed up the importance of this project, announcing the country's readiness to become a regional hub for the supply of food and other products through the implementation of the "Middle Corridor."

2022: Strengthening Turkic cooperation within the Middle Corridor

The importance of the project, launched back in 2017, increased sharply in 2022 after the outbreak of hostilities in Ukraine.

For European companies that previously worked with Russia, it became necessary to find bypass routes to continue cargo transportation bypassing the territory of the Russian Federation. The optimal option was the Middle Corridor.

Europeans are forced to adapt to new realities in order to ensure the uninterrupted supply of goods from China. If until 2022 everyone is more than satisfied with the use of the Trans-Siberian Railway, then in the new conditions trade with the European Union is seriously complicated.

Danish Maersk and Finnish Nurminen Logistics switched to the Kazakh railway network leading to China in the spring.

On June 27, 2022, meetings of foreign ministers and, and were held in Baku transport Turkey Azerbaijan. Kazakhstan

The parties stressed the importance of investing in the infrastructure of the route. The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) said it was ready to invest billions of euros in the development of freight routes between Europe and Asia, bypassing Russia.