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The Development Road Project will connect Turkiye's established transportation infrastructure that integrated into european logistic system, to the Port of Faw in the Gulf via a 1,200-kilometer railway and transit highway. Described as the New Silk Road, the project will affect a wide region from Europe to the Gulf countries and will produce common benefits.
The foundations of this vision project date back to 2005. In 2005, the local government of Basra proposed to the government to build the largest port in the region on the Faw Peninsula, the gateway to the Gulf, with a budget of around 5 billion dollars.
Essentially, the project is too big for Iraq's own needs. The meaningfulness of the project depends on two conditions. The first one is that the port should aim to transport goods to third countries. The second is to cooperate with countries in the region that will support the project and increase its value.
Iraq started to work on the Faw Port with this goal. This port is expected to welcome the first ship in September 2024 and fully open in 2025. This has doubled the urgency to build a strategic road from the port to the neighbors. Because without such a road, the port could become useless after it opens.
In April 2010, the Iraqi Ministry of Transportation announced that it had accepted investment proposals for the construction of a railway from Faw to Syria and Turkiye to take advantage of the Greater Faw Port. Also in March 2014, Iraq signed an agreement with the World Bank for this purpose.
On the other hand, Iraq's geopolitical importance has increased with the development and leasing of Pakistan's Gwadar Port by China in 2015. This is because Chinese goods reaching Gwadar will be able to reach Europe in a short time at a much lower cost than reaching Europe by sea through the Suez Canal.
The "China-Pakistan Economic Corridor" (CPEC) project, which aims to connect the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in northwest China to the Arabian Sea through the ports of Gwadar and Karachi by crossing Pakistan in a northeast-southwest direction, is at the heart of the Belt and Road Initiative.
As of 2020, the size of road projects, port and free zone constructions under the project exceeded $70 billion. The projects are aimed at making Pakistan a key logistics hub for the transportation of Chinese manufactured goods around the world.
For China, the importance of the CPEC lies in providing alternative transportation routes to the Strait of Malacca. This also saves a lot of money due to the shorter route. The Strait of Malacca is important because 25 percent of global trade passes through it. It is also where 85 percent of China's oil imports pass through. Therefore, as part of the project to shorten this waterway, the Gwadar port is of critical importance. This is where the importance of Gwadar Port and the aforementioned Faw Port converge.
After Russia's attack on Ukraine in February 2022 and the problems in Europe's relations with Russia, the transfer route of Qatari gas and the extraction and export of Iraqi gas to Europe have increased the importance of the Development Road project.
Opportunities for Project Success
In addition to the high speed train line, the Development Road Project will also include economic projects and services such as highways, oil pipelines and gas pipelines for Iraq and the Gulf countries.
Minister of Transportation Adil Karaismailoğlu describes the 1200 kilometer project as the new Silk Road and points out that important developments will take place with the Gulf countries.
"We have already held talks with them on the logistics corridor that will change the balance in the world. At the governmental level, under the leadership of our President, the foundations of a new Silk Road are being laid. Especially with the Gulf and a 1200-kilometer-long railway and highway extending from Baghdad to the borders of our country, with the Faw Port in the Gulf, which is the place where it connects, I hope that there will be very important developments in the coming days for Turkiye, Iraq and especially the Gulf countries that will use it."
Mushtak al-Hilo, a senior expert at the Center for Iranian Studies, describes the project as a step that will "change the geopolitics of the Gulf countries."
It could also create benefits and economic opportunities even for Iraqi armed groups, which could attract their support. For all these reasons, former Iraqi Minister of Transportation Nasser Hussein Bandar Shibli believes that the implementation of this project will bring more security and stability to Iraq. This is because the countries benefiting from the project will make efforts to ensure its security.
This route, which starts from Basra, will pass through important cities in Iraq, then enter Turkiye through the contact point of Iraq, Turkiye and Syria and continue to Europe through Mersin Port. The project is expected to cost around 20 billion dollars and is expected to be completed by 2029 according to the plan. Iraq is incapable of providing such a sum, and so the project's progress will certainly depend on foreign investment.
Mushtak al-Hilo emphasizes the importance of Turkiye in terms of financing:
"Turkiye is one of the sponsors of this project. This is because, apart from the economic benefits, Turkiye's Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu promised a $5 billion loan at the "Conference on the Reconstruction of Iraq" in Kuwait in February 2018. During former Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa Kadhimi's visit to Ankara in late 2020, he was told that this loan was for the construction of the road in question."
Türkiye'den Basra Körfezi'ne: Kalkınma Yolu Projesi
Kalkınma Yolu Projesi, 1200 kilometrelik demir yolu ve otoyol ile Türkiye'yi Basra Körfezi'ndeki Faw Limanı'na bağlayacak. Yeni İpek Yolu olarak tanımlanan proje, Avrupa'dan Körfez ülkelerine kadar geniş bir bölgeyi etkileyecek ve ortak fayda üretecek.
www.trthaber.com
Türkiye'nin Kalkınma Yolu hamlesi ve Lojistik üssü olma yolundaki tarihi adımları
Türkiye'nin kadim devlet aklı, büyük adımlar atmaya devam ediyor. Türkiye; Orta Koridor, Zengezur Koridoru, Libya Lojistik üssü gibi dış hamlelerinin yanına şimdi de Basra Körfezi üzerinden gelecek olan Kalkınma Yolu hamlesini ekliyor.
gdh.digital
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