Turkey will host a four-way meeting this week with Iraq, the UAE and Qatar to push forward work on a major infrastructure project that could eventually link the Arabian Gulf to Europe.
Officials from the four countries will meet at the Dolmabahce Palace in Istanbul on Thursday to discuss details and make “important decisions” about the $17 billion rail and road infrastructure project dubbed the “Development Road”, Turkey's Minister of Transport and Infrastructure Abdulkadir Uraloglu told state media.
It will be the first such meeting since the countries signed a memorandum of understanding to co-operate on the project during Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s visit to Baghdad in April. The trip was the Turkish leader's first visit to Iraq in 13 years, as Ankara and its southern neighbour attempt to build closer ties.
“The Development Road will support the sustainability of global trade by ensuring the diversification of international trade corridors,” Mr Uraloglu said. “Turkey will reinforce its economic and strategic advantages by creating a reliable and effective trade corridor between Asia and Europe.”
The project will focus on building road and rail links along a 1,200km route from Iraq's southern port of Al Faw, south of Basra on the Arabian Gulf, to its border with Turkey in the north. From there, goods can be transported by Turkey's road and rail links to the western city of Edirne, near the borders with Greece and Bulgaria.
Iraq unveiled its Development Road project to transport ministers and officials from the GCC, Iran, Turkey, Syria and Jordan at a conference in Baghdad in May last year.
Qatar and the UAE showed interest in the project after seeing progress in its development, an Iraqi government official previously told The National.
“They were serious, unlike others, and especially after seeing significant progress rates in the designs of the railway, the highway and soil testing,” the official said.
“Meetings were held over the past year and Turkey played a role in bringing UAE and Qatar to the project,” he added.
The countries see the Development Road as an alternative to another major planned trade route, the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. The US-backed project also aims to boost trade and cut transport costs, but Middle Eastern nations have grown wary of it over the past year as it involves Israel, whereas the Iraq-Turkey Development Road does not.
