Uzbekistan sees Zangezur corridor as key link to Türkiye, Europe

For Central Asia, the Zangezur Corridor opens a new logistics route to Türkiye via Caspian Sea ports and the South Caucasus. In the long term, it will provide direct access to European markets, significantly expanding the geography of regional trade, a source in Uzbekistan’s Ministry of Transport told Trend.

“In recent years, Uzbekistan has been actively taking practical steps to create new and modernise existing land and multimodal transport corridors covering the entire Eurasian region,” the source noted.

Among the most promising directions, he said, remain the construction of the China–Kyrgyzstan–Uzbekistan and Uzbekistan–Afghanistan–Pakistan railways. Implementation of these projects will help form a network of modern multimodal routes, including:

• East–West: China – Kyrgyzstan – Uzbekistan – Turkmenbashi (Turkmenistan) / Aktau (Kazakhstan) – Baku – Zangezur Corridor – Nakhchivan – Türkiye – Europe;

• South–West: Ports of the Indian Ocean (Gwadar / Karachi) – Pakistan – Afghanistan – Uzbekistan – Kazakhstan – Caspian Sea ports – Azerbaijan – Zangezur Corridor – Türkiye – Europe.

The Zangezur Corridor project, stretching about 40–44 km, is primarily aimed at ensuring direct connectivity between mainland Azerbaijan and its exclave, the Nakhchivan Autonomous Republic, through Armenia’s Syunik (Meghri) region. The main goal of the project is to simplify transport links between Azerbaijan and Nakhchivan, bypassing third countries, thereby increasing the efficiency and reliability of regional logistics chains.

By Khagan Isayev