This is Eve. This article by someone who could be called a spokesperson for the United States shows the extent to which China is seen as a strategic competitor and how any move to advance Chinese interests, even if perhaps primarily economic, is a threat to the West.
From Radio Free Liberty/Radio Liberty staff. Oil prices
- China has won the tender to build a deep-sea port in Anaklia, Georgia, which will be the first large-scale project built and operated by China on the country’s Black Sea coast.
- The agreement strengthens the deepening ties between Tbilisi and Beijing and brings China’s presence closer to Europe.
- This also has implications for the future of the Central Corridor, a global trade route on which Georgia is a strategic base.
Georgia Announced A consortium of Chinese companies won the sole bid to build Anaklia’s vast deep-sea port, making it the first megaproject on the Black Sea coast to be built and operated by a Chinese company.
Finding perspective: The development brings to an end years of political wrangling in Georgia over the construction of the Anaklia deep-sea port, while the role of the Chinese consortium puts the deepening ties between Tbilisi and Beijing in the spotlight.
Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development, Levan Davitashvili, announced at a press conference on May 29 that the government had received a bid from the Swiss-Luxembourg Alliance as well as a joint proposal from China Communications Construction Company and Singapore-based China Port Investment.
He added that China Highway and Bridge Corporation and Qingdao Port International will be subcontractors for the port’s construction.
Dabitashvili said Tbilisi had only received a final proposal from a Chinese consortium that would now build the country’s first deep-sea port, adding that details would be revealed in the “coming days”.
Why is this important: Georgia has a history of awarding high-profile infrastructure projects to Chinese companies, but this announcement could have far-reaching implications.
Firstly, it’s another sign of how close Tbilisi and Beijing have become: in July 2023, the two countries signed a strategic partnership agreement, and Anaklia is another attempt to attract Chinese companies to Georgia’s Black Sea coast. Poti Port Area It broke in 2020.
The agreement will also have an impact on the future of the so-called “Middle Corridor,” a global trade network transporting goods between Europe and Asia, in which Georgia is a strategic hub. The European Union has said it aims to develop the route because it offers a trade link that bypasses Russia, especially since Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
But China’s new role Anaklia Deep Seaport This would allow larger ships to transport larger volumes more efficiently, but it would change the landscape and represent a setback for Brussels.
“This is not good news for the EU. I think the fact that[China]is building a port shows a lack of strategic thinking in Brussels,” Romana Vlakhtin, a former EU envoy for connectivity, told me.
What we know so far: Many details, such as the exact terms of the contract and the total value, have yet to be revealed. The government has previously said it would retain 51 percent ownership of the port project, with the remaining 49 percent going to other partners.
The Chinese company involved also has an interesting history: China Communications Construction Corporation is a global infrastructure giant and one of the largest companies involved in China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) projects over the past decade.
However, the World Bank banned the company and its affiliates from participating in World Bank-financed construction projects between 2011 and 2019 following a fraud scandal in a road construction project in the Philippines in 2009.
To find out more about the company’s history and past scandals involving other companies involved in the Anaklia bid, Check out this article By Luka Pertaia of RFE/RL’s Georgian Service and me.
What to see: The contract marks the second attempt to build a deep-sea port in Anaklia.
A previous consortium formed between Georgia’s TBC Bank and US-based Conti International was cancelled by the government in 2020 after years of political wrangling that saw TBC co-founders Mamuka Kazaradze and Badri Japaridze face money laundering charges.
The two were charged but released without prison time, and Kazaradze claims authorities were trying to sabotage the project, which was worth $2.5 billion in contracts.
Kazaradze is in the process of taking the Georgian government to an arbitration court in London over what he claims are politically motivated charges for sabotaging the port’s construction. He has been an outspoken critic of reviving the project and has previously said legal obstacles caused by the exclusion of the previous consortium could thwart any new construction plans.
