Countries along the Trans-Caspian Corridor, with backing from the European Union, are working to make the route significantly faster and more reliable. The goal is to reduce transit times from roughly 35 days to between 15 and 20, a shift that would make this alternative trade path more competitive for businesses moving goods between Europe and Central Asia.
The corridor, which links Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, and Türkiye before reaching European markets, relies on a complex mix of railways, roads, ports, and maritime connections. Each leg must operate smoothly across different national systems, and improving that coordination was the central theme of the second National Conference on the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor held in Tashkent. European and Uzbek officials, along with international financial institutions and transport companies, gathered to discuss priority investments, project preparation, logistics, digitalisation, and faster border procedures.
Beyond infrastructure: customs and digital links
Jasurbek Choriyev, Secretary General of TRACECA—the intergovernmental commission for the Europe-Caucasus-Asia transport corridor—acknowledged that infrastructure remains uneven along the route and will require continued investment. But he made clear that the immediate priority is what he calls “soft connectivity.”
“Digital connectivity and cross-border facilitation and simplification of procedures will be the number one priority for the next four years that we need to focus on,” Choriyev said.
Pēteris Ustubs, Director for Asia and the Pacific at the European Commission’s Directorate-General for International Partnerships (DG INTPA), echoed that view, stressing the need to look at the corridor as a whole. “We have to look at the corridor in its entirety, making sure that the procedural part of the entire corridor is working as smoothly as possible, making sure that documentation is moved as far as possible to the electronic versions, making sure that customs procedures are harmonised to the maximum,” he said.
Why predictability matters for freight
For logistics companies, a shorter journey is only part of what makes a transport corridor competitive. They also need predictable transit times. “The transport companies and logistics companies are interested in a very predictable timeline of the corridor, making sure that they know when and how the transport will move around,” Ustubs noted.
EU Ambassador to Uzbekistan Toivo Klaar described cooperation on “soft infrastructure” as just as important as investment in physical links. He said this means agreeing on procedures to simplify border crossings and reduce the time needed for clearances and permits. “So that if somebody wants to ship, for example, from Uzbekistan, a container load or a trainload of cargo to Europe, they don't have to apply for individual permits in each country along the route, because there are quite a few,” Klaar said. Instead, he added, a single agreed permit and system would make it easier to move cargo along the route. “That is perfectly possible. It has been done elsewhere, and it is about political will. It is about cooperation,” he added.
Bottlenecks further west
Shorter transit times also depend on removing capacity constraints further west. Choriyev pointed to new railway connections involving Azerbaijan, Armenia, Nakhchivan, and Türkiye as examples of how relatively short links can connect larger sections of the route. The Black Sea presents another challenge. The International Maritime Organisation warned in July of a resurgence in attacks on civilian merchant ships in the Black Sea and Sea of Azov. Recent attacks have also hit commercial vessels and port infrastructure along Ukraine’s Black Sea coast. “Black Sea security is a concern now,” Choriyev said, also pointing to ferry links and maritime capacity as potential constraints.
Uzbekistan expands links east and west
For Uzbekistan, the economics of the corridor are closely tied to geography. It is one of only two doubly landlocked countries in the world, and Transport Minister Ilkhom Makhkamov says transport accounts for a significant share of the cost of Uzbek products. Tashkent is looking beyond its own borders to improve access to international markets. Makhkamov said plans include involvement in Caspian port infrastructure, ferries or barges on the Caspian Sea, infrastructure projects in Azerbaijan, and stakes in ports in Georgia and on the Black Sea.
There are capacity constraints at home as well. Passenger and freight trains share parts of Uzbekistan’s railway network, while a planned dedicated high-speed passenger line between Tashkent and Samarkand is intended partly to free up freight capacity. Hikmatulla Rahmetov, First Deputy Chairman of Uzbekistan Railways, said the project would “decrease the pressure on our cargo flow” and help reduce freight operating costs.
At the same time, the China-Kyrgyzstan-Uzbekistan railway could bring significantly more cargo into the network from the east. Uzbekistan Railways estimates the route could eventually carry up to 15 million tonnes of freight a year. This would further test the corridor’s ability to handle growing volumes, making the push for smoother procedures even more urgent.
The EU’s interest in the Trans-Caspian Corridor is part of a broader strategy to diversify trade routes and strengthen ties with Central Asia. As the bloc seeks to reduce dependence on traditional transit routes, projects like this one gain strategic importance. For a deeper look at how Europe is engaging with the region, see Tashkent's ambitions as a tech hub. The corridor also intersects with wider European efforts to secure supply chains, as seen in efforts to reduce lithium reliance on China.
