The Idea of Silk Road Becomes More Real in South Caucasus

• 10.25.2015, 09:10
• Naira Mkrtchyan
•  Region,  Asia,  "Insight" Analytical Center ,  World,  Armenia

The conference "Tbilisi: Silk Road" took place in Tbilisi on October 15-16. The conference was organized by the government of Georgia together  with  the government of Democratic Republic of China (DRC) in cooperation with Asian Development Bank.  800 representatives from 31 countries (DRC, UAE, USA, Turkey. Kazakhstan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, South Korea, Afghanistan, Italy, Hungary, Czech and others), including prime ministers, ministers, heads of 20 international, financial and donor organizations, businessmen, representatives of about 300 Chinese companies participated in the event.

The head of RA delegation was RA Minister of Economy Karen Chshmarityan. RA Minister discussed number of issues related to economic cooperation in the framework of New Silk Road with the delegates of different countries.

It is to be noted that Georgia is very excited by this Chinese initiatives and does not miss any chance to use transit opportunities of Georgia by ensuring the modernization of country’s infrastructure via the help of its users. As Prime Minister of Georgia Irakli Garibashvili declared during the opening ceremony of the conference Georgia will connect East and West, North and South and according to him the resource of New Silk Road should be maximally used. Georgia attaches to itself the central role in the region because of its strategic positioning. By the way in February of this year for the first time a train arrived in Europe through Georgia by the route  China-Uzbekistan-Azerbaijan.

Georgia is quite initiative-prone on this issue, this is the reason why the Chinese implement  serious projects in this country. Armenia should not also miss the historic opportunity presented by New Silk Road, especially after signing the document with Beijing in March of this year. According to that document "the sides will jointly boost the Silk Road initiative  by opening new prospects for bilateral cooperation".

Thus Armenia should be active by coming up with new initiatives on this issue. We should not forget that during the centuries our country was an important transit territory for Silk Road; the one that was known for its reliability, security and profitability.