The construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway line has been postponed indefinitely. The project, which was supposed to start in the fall of this year, has lost its priority for the main investor China, the Secretary General of the International Coordinating Council for Trans-Eurasian Transportation Gennady Bessonov reports.
"The project is ready, but Beijing, Bishkek and Tashkent still cannot agree on the issue of money, more precisely, on the ratio of its financing. This may take a long time. Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan do not have the funds to finance the project. China can take over everything, but this railway is not the priority of today. This project is not intended for the delivery of goods to Europe, because now there is a train service on the Trans-Siberian railway and Dostlik (Kazakhstan) - Orenburg - Brest. "There are a lot of discussions about transport projects in all the republics of Central Asia, everyone wants to become a freight center, but it all depends on money," he said.
The 454-kilometer China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway project was intended to connect the railways of China and Uzbekistan through Kyrgyzstan, and then connect them to the European railway network through Turkmenistan, Iran and Turkey as part of the New Silk Road transport system.
It is noted that this project does not have any modern technological achievements: the railway will be single-track and not electrified. Therefore, China will become a weak link in the delivery of goods to Europe.
In 2003, China allocated 20 million yuan ($2.4 million) to develop the feasibility study for the railway line. The Chinese experts, who developed the initial technical and economic basis of the railway, noted a number of advantages of the new route: the new railway is 900 kilometers shorter than the existing transport corridor, the construction of the railway will establish transport links between the countries of Central Asia and provide convenient access to their seaports.
According to the intergovernmental agreements, the construction of the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway should be carried out by China National Machinery Import & Export Corporation (CNMIEC).
It is argued that the problem is not only money: a few billion dollars is not a problem for China. But the inevitable deterioration of relations with Kazakhstan and Russia due to the construction of a railway bypassing geopolitical neighbors is a headache that China does not need right now.
According to the publication, the situation has become somewhat unstable against the background of the growing expansion of the United States in relation to Asia, which affects Beijing. The issue of the Taiwan situation with the United States is becoming increasingly real for the Chinese leadership, and each ally is important in the face of rising tensions. In this regard, Russia strongly supports China, which is clear to everyone.
