Attacks Threaten Vital Corridor Spanning Caspian and Black Seas
Recent incidents suggest war is encroaching on the Middle Corridor, a vital route for energy and goods trade between Europe and Asia.
By Anna Jordanová
On July 30, two tankers transferring oil from Russia’s Novorossiysk terminal through the Black Sea were hit by Ukrainian drones, adding to five earlier incidents that month. The vessels sustained limited damage, but the attacks deepened concerns conflict was spilling over into vital trade corridors.
Decades of infrastructure investment have stitched the Caspian Sea and Black Sea into a single transportation and energy corridor, linking East and West. Transit through the so-called “Middle Corridor” has emerged as an important alternative route for the delivery of both Central Asian energy and Chinese goods to Europe. This corridor, which avoids the sanctions pitfalls of logistics networks that pass through Russia and the Middle East, is also an economic and diplomatic lifeline for the states of Central Asia and the South Caucasus.
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