An article published today on Les clés du Moyen Orient (The keys of the Middle East) highlights Türkiye’s plan to create its own infrastructure-based development corridor. While for the website, Türkiye’s main objective is to compete geopolitically with both the BRI and the Suez canal, an interesting sketch of the project is presented.
Following on from China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) project and India’s “India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor” (IMEC), Türkiye became “the latest regional power to propose a series of large-scale infrastructures designed to connect Asian and European markets via the Middle East.”
On April 23, 2024, a quadruple memorandum of understanding was signed between Ankara, Baghdad, Abu Dhabi and Doha to launch the “Development Road” project (Kalkınma Yolu Projesi), also nicknamed “the dry canal” because of the competition it will represent for the Suez Canal. But at a time when the Houthis might disrupt maritime traffic in the Red Sea, such an alternative has attracted the attention of many.
The Turkish project offers “a route hitherto deliberately avoided by the Chinese and Indian powers. The keystone of the ‘development route’ is to pass through Iraq and reach, from Asia by sea, the Iraqi port of Faw—to be constructed near Basra—and, from there, follow the country of the two rivers from south to north, then, after crossing Türkiye, plunge straight into Europe, serving Bulgaria, Serbia, Romania, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium and the United Kingdom.”
The Turkish “development road” project focuses primarily on the development of road and rail infrastructure in Iraq and, to a lesser extent, in Türkiye. The United Arab Emirates and Qatar are also involved in the project, on the one hand because the sea routes will make stopovers at their ports when crossing the Persian Gulf, and on the other because Türkiye is calling them to finance part of the $17 billion project. It is to be carried out in three phases: the first to be completed in 2028, the second in 2033 and the third in 2050.
The key element, the first phase, is the construction of the “Great Port of Faw,” a giant deepwater port close to Basra in Iraq, scheduled to begin operations in 2028 and become fully operational in 2038, by which time it should be the largest port in the Middle East.
From this port, goods from Asia—notably India and China—will then transit through Iraq along 1,200 kilometers of road and rail links, which have yet to be built. The Turkish and Iraqi governments will invest $23.8 billion in developing the infrastructure of the Development Route.
According to Turkish Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu, this overland route through Iraqi territory will reduce the Asia-Europe connection to 25 days, compared with 35 for a passage via the Suez Canal and 45 via the Cape of Good Hope.
