Iraq, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Turkey signed a quadrilateral memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Baghdad on April 25 to establish a development road project linking Iraq with Turkey and the Gulf states, according to bne IntelliNews.
The agreement, signed during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to Iraq, envisages launching the project from Iraq’s Faw port, adjacent to Kuwait’s Mubarak port. The agreement has drawn the ire of Kuwait over perceived threats to national, economic and commercial interests.
The 1,200 kilometre double-track railway, originally announced for 2023, is a monumental project to improve transport in the region. The Iraqi government envisages that the high-speed trains will carry passengers at speeds of up to 300 kilometres per hour, similar to speeds seen in Spain and Uzbekistan.
More than a third of Kuwait’s 50-member National Assembly commented on the signing, deeming it a failure of the government’s development policies and port projects. They called for serious action, including the immediate completion of work at the Mubarak port and the formation of committees to investigate delays and any impact on Kuwaiti interests. Political activist Bader Al-Najjar stated:
“The Mubarak port reflects the state’s failure in managing major projects…and its weakness in managing international and regional relations. The importance lies in two aspects…if we assume failure in managing major projects, it means we have an insincere government in increasing state resources…and no vision for the economy, sustainability and development.”
Economic expert Mohammed Ramadan claimed that the agreement is “just a memorandum of understanding…the basis is Iraq and Turkey…on establishing a railway and road to transport goods, energy, etc from Faw port to Turkey, then Europe.”
If Kuwait had sufficient port and logistics facilities, it could have become an important part of this project…but due to lack of infrastructure that can be used for such projects, they headed to Iraq.
Shipping and railway lines of the India-Middle East-Europe trade corridor will pass through the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel before reaching Greece and other points in Europe.
Meanwhile, the Iranians and Russians are working on the development of the International North-South Corridor (INSTC). It is designed to facilitate multimodal trade routes linking Russia, the South Caucasus, Central Asia and Europe with the Middle East and India via Iranian ports in the Persian Gulf and the Sea of Oman.
