The New Great Game Round-Up #50

The Great Game Round-Up brings you the latest newsworthy developments regarding Central Asia and the Caucasus region. We document the struggle for influence, power, hegemony and profits between a U.S.-dominated NATO, its GCC proxies, Russia, China and other regional players.

At the beginning of this week, the Presidents of Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey gathered in Tbilisi for their first high-level trilateral summit. All three leaders praised the close ties and pledged to further increase cooperation between the countries. They discussed, among other things, a possible transition from bilateral to trilateral cooperation in the defense sector. Moreover, the Georgian side informed the guests from Azerbaijan and Turkey about the progress of the major railway project linking the three countries, which should have been operational by the end of 2013 but was delayed several times and is still not anywhere near completion [emphasis mine]:

Azerbaijan, Georgia, Turkey Reiterate Partnership with Trilateral Summit

The focus of the summit, according to the officials, was joint energy and transportation projects, among them Baku-Tbilisi-Kars railway, which is currently under construction and which will connect Azerbaijan with Turkey via Georgia.

According to Georgian Economy Minister, Giorgi Kvirikashvili, the railway is expected to be put into operation before the end of 2015.

© Photo Turkish President’s press office

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