March 18, 2025 (EIRNS)—A Chinese construction team, led by China Railway Tunnel Group, will be building a 23 km highway between the towns of Kvesheti and Kobi in Georgia, that will then connect northern Georgia to Russia, forming part of a trade route from Armenia northward through Georgia, into Russia. The Kvesheti-Kobi road will be incorporated into China’s Belt and Road, an initiative aimed at connecting Asia, Africa, and Europe.
A new $450 million loan from the Asian Development Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development will enable phase 2 of this project to be completed, which involves building five tunnels and five bridges. The travel time between the two named Georgian cities will shrink from 1 hour to 15 minutes.
Phase 1 of the project employed the use of an advanced 4,000-ton boring machine with a diameter measuring 15 meters, to bore through the mountains. That phase was completed in 2024. Chinese companies, including those partially owned by the state, have made significant investments to develop Georgia, just as these same companies have also invested in Serbia’s development. This indicates that the BRI is alive in Eastern Europe. The violent Western color revolution destabilizations in Georgia and Serbia are aimed at overthrowing those nations’ governments, but also at halting the positive contributions of the BRI.
