Geopolitical Risks to Eurasian Transport Corridors. An Expert Discussion

On October 22, the Valdai Club hosted an expert discussion titled “Geopolitical Risks to Eurasian Transport Corridors”. On September 25, traffic on the Belarusian-Polish border resumed after a nearly two-week closure of border crossings, an event that had triggered a major logistics crisis across the Eurasian region. Poland’s official pretext for the closure was the Russian-Belarusian Zapad-2025 military exercises, which Warsaw described as a “security threat.” The consequences of Poland’s decision adversely affected the interests of numerous Eurasian countries, including China and EU member states. Rail and road transport were sharply reduced, undermining the potential of the Western Europe –Western China transport corridor. Thousands of containers were stranded at the border, further disrupting supply chains that had already been fragile from previous crises. The resulting losses extended not only to companies in China and Europe – including Poland itself, where local logistics operators lost significant revenue – but also to transit countries such as Kazakhstan. What are the consequences of this logistics crisis? How will the Central Eurasian Transport Corridor develop under these circumstances? What are the prospects for the emergence of alternative routes in the future? Speakers: Dmitry Ofitserov-Belsky, Head of Baltic Sea Region Integrated Research Group, IMEMO Rupal Mishra, Senior Research Fellow, Center for Russian and Central Asian Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru...