China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan Railway Construction To Begin Next Year

Kyrgyz President Sadyr Zhaparov told the Kabar Agency on May 30 that construction on the “CKU” railroad will start in 2023. [see “The New Silk Road Becomes the World Land-Bridge” Vol. 2, Schiller Institute, pg. 117-119] “There will be jobs. Our economy will boom,” Zhaparov said, today’s Global Times reported. The trinational rail line has been officially on the drawing boards since 1997, when the three countries signed a memorandum of understanding on the project. Now, 25 years later, the approximately 523 km line will be integrated into the Belt and Road, forming a southern China-Europe rail freight route connecting China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan to Central and Eastern Europe via Iran and Turkey. According to Uzbek officials, it will be the shortest of the China-Europe rail routes by 900 km, thus saving days of shipping time.