Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Iraqi Prime Minister Mohammed Shia’ al-Sudani met in New York on Sept. 26 on furthering their “Development Road” project which they first agreed to earlier this year. The project involves road, railway, water and power infrastructure for the mutual economic development and security of their two nations. They also conferred on the need to stop Israel’s genocide in Gaza and attacks on Lebanon.
The concept of the “Development Road” is to run a transport/development corridor northward through Iraq from the Port of Faw on the Persian Gulf. The corridor then transits Türkiye, onward to Europe and Asia. Türkiye will have access to the Persian Gulf. Collateral agreements will guarantee Iraqi oil supplies for Türkiye, and guarantee river flow to Iraq, arising in Türkiye.
Among the predecessor programs to the Development Road was the famous Berlin-to-Baghdad railway project of the early 1900s, eventually thwarted by the British. In the 1980s, this kind of corridor was called the “Dry Canal” approach.
