The South Caucasus, and on the other hand, the South Caucasus-Central Asia region, is not on the sidelines of geopolitical processes, Azerbaijan’s Ambassador-at-Large Elshad Iskandarov said during his speech at a roundtable titled “Europe-Azerbaijan relations: assessing historical experience and directions for future cooperation” in Baku, APA reports.
“We know that the main players have already established themselves in the region and are investing large amounts in specific projects. Russia’s priority is the North-South Corridor, while the US priority is the TRIPP project,” he said.
Elshad Iskandarov noted that China is also investing heavily in the region. Thus, by mid-2025, China had invested $690 million in the region, 60% of which was directed to Azerbaijan: “A large part of these investments relates to connectivity and transport corridors. One of the facts confirming this is that container transportation via the Middle Corridor has increased by 37% since the beginning of the year. This figure shows that the corridor has great potential.”
According to him, the EU’s investments in the feasibility study are very important, but the momentum should be increased. “I think connectivity and transport are among the main areas of cooperation. Another important issue is mines. Unfortunately, one of the three elements I mentioned — mines — still remains. There is no longer a conflict, there is no destruction in Azerbaijan and the South Caucasus as a whole, but mines still remain. There are more than 1.5 million mines on the territory of Azerbaijan. This covers an area approximately equal to the size of a country. I will not name specific countries, but Lebanon recently joined the Ottawa Convention. By comparison, the area of the Karabakh region contaminated with mines is approximately equal to the size of Lebanon.”
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