Axar.az presents the article "Azerbaijan's belt & road initiative dreams are turning into reality" by Andrew Korybko.

Azerbaijan is the largest economy and most powerful state in the geostrategically positioned South Caucasus. This region sits between the Mideast, Eastern Europe, and Central Asia and always had the opportunity to serve as a bridge between them, but Baku's dreams of bringing them all together were stymied for nearly three decades as a result of the previously unresolved Nagorno-Karabakh conflict. Following last month's victory in that war, however, it now has the chance to turn its dreams into reality.

Azerbaijani President Aliyev's vision for the broader region perfectly aligns with China's Belt & Road Initiative (BRI), which is why his country was one of the earliest supporters of Beijing's global integration concept. Earlier this month, he proposed the creation of a regional integration platform between Azerbaijan, Russia, Turkey, Iran, Georgia, and Armenia while speaking at the Victory Day parade alongside his guest of honour Turkish President Erdogan. Those two leaders are already making great strides with integrating their countries into BRI.

Just last weekend, the Turkish Transport and Infrastructure Minister celebrated the major milestone of the first export train from Turkey to China reaching its destination after travelling through the Trans Caspian East-West Middle Corridor (or just “Middle Corridor” for short) to Xi'an, the capital city of China's Shaanxi Province. Importantly, this historic connectivity route transits through Azerbaijan and ran parallel to the Baku-Tbilisi-Kars (BTK) railway.

Azerbaijani Ambassador to China Akram Zeynalli published a piece at CGTN on Wednesday titled “The peace dividend in the Caucasus: a new land link from East to West”. In it, he elaborated on President Aliyev's vision for turning Azerbaijan into one of BRI's most important connectivity nodes. The Ambassador also noted how Baku's plans to create a highway between the capital and its newly restored territories in the West all the way to Nakhchivan and Turkey would complement the BTK railway and reduce East-West transit time.

In other words, Azerbaijan's victory in what it officially nowadays regards as its Patriotic War will finally allow the country to unleash its full connectivity potential with Chinese support. Its geostrategic position in the centre of the Middle Corridor makes it an important BRI partner. Azerbaijan can also, however, function as a significant facilitator of North-South trade too, and once again with Chinese support. This could happen if China's reportedly planned investments in Iran materialize upon the signing of an investment pact.

There have been many rumours over the past year about the size and scope of this deal that Beijing and Tehran are presently negotiating, but it's safe to say that it would probably result in some large-scale infrastructure investments of the kind that Beijing is globally famous for supporting through BRI. The modernization of Iran's domestic transportation infrastructure could enable it to finally fulfil its dreams of serving as Russia's trade conduit to the Indian Ocean through the North-South Transport Corridor (NSTC).

India was one of the main investors and intended beneficiaries of the NSTC, but its submission to America's “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran saw it scale down its interest in that project in recent years. China could, in theory, replace India's reduced role in Iran's modernization plans by connecting BRI's flagship project of the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) to Beijing-funded projects along the NSTC via its western branch expansion of W-CPEC+. This would in turn create a Chinese-Pakistani-Iranian-Azerbaijani-Russian trade corridor.

Azerbaijan could thus become just as important in facilitating North-South trade as it's poised to become with respect to East-West trade, thereby turning it into one of the world's most economically strategic countries. Its vision of Eurasian integration perfectly aligns with China's, hence why it would also be a good idea if Baku invited Beijing to join President Aliyev's proposed regional integration platform. China's already on excellent terms with all six of the involved countries so Beijing's participation would boost their connectivity through BRI.