Minister Uraloğlu: No corridor without Türkiye as new logistics backbone is built

Transport and Infrastructure Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu spoke at a conference on changing global transport geopolitics and the Development Road Project, organised by SETA at its Ankara office. He said global trade corridors are being redrawn and that recent geopolitical developments have exposed how fragile transport systems can be. Tensions around the Strait of Hormuz and the Russia-Ukraine war, he said, have pushed countries to seek safer, shorter and more predictable routes.

Stressing that “there is no corridor without Türkiye,” Uraloğlu described the Development Road as a new logistics backbone linking Iraq's Faw Port in the Basra Gulf to Europe via Türkiye. He said the route would cut transit times to about 25 days, 20 days shorter than the 45-day Cape of Good Hope route. He also cited 2,156 kilometres of lines connected to the Middle Corridor and investments of $47.1 billion.

Uraloğlu noted the groundbreaking of the Kars-Iğdır-Aralık-Dilucu railway. He said memoranda signed on July 28 in the presence of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan and Iraqi Prime Minister Ali ez-Zeydi give the project concrete form, and that both countries' parliaments will review them before construction starts.