An idea that very much resembles proposals presented to the public at Schiller Institute conferences and in EIR special reports in the past years, seems to have become a project on China’s New Silk Road agenda:The Greek Reporter news network of July 6 reports that China is considering the building of a canal trade route from the Aegean Sea to the Danube River, to connect Greece and central Europe through the Balkans in order to expedite the shipping of goods. This would be a part of China’s $3 trillion Belt and Road Initiative.
China has already established a strong foothold in the Mediterranean through the COSCO ownership of Greece’s main seaport, Piraeus, but the port to be used in case the Balkan canal trade route materializes will be the Thessaloniki Port of Greece. (Page 141 of the 1997 Eurasian Land-Bridge report contains a map that approximates this proposed project.)
The plan that is under consideration by China is a vertical link between the Danube, Europe’s second-longest river, and Greece’s northern Aegean coast, specifically, the Thessaloniki Port. The navigable route will go via the rivers Morava and Vardar/Axios, thus reaching central Europe without circumnavigating the Mediterranean. The plan is to expand the rivers in certain parts so that the big freighters can pass through. The waterway would offer a much faster and lower-cost route for cargo destined for Europe from the East. Development of the new waterway would offer a transportation link from the East Mediterranean directly to the heart of Europe, via the Axios/Vardar, Morava, and Danube rivers.
