In 2013, China announced its Belt and Road Initiative for the first time. Since then, the country has been spearheading a staggering amount of megainvestments across the entire planet. One of these investments is a potential gamechanging project in the Balkans: The DanubeMoravaVardar/Axios canal. Estimated to cost around 17 billion USD, it would be one of China’s most costly single projects and could change the geopolitical and geoeconomic value of the region forever.

This canal would connect the Danube river directly with the Mediterranean sea, thus presenting a new waterway which could be used to simply bypass the until now crucial Turkish Straits. In this video, we’ll take a look at China’s reasons behind the project, its negotiations with Serbia, North Macedonia and Greece, and also its impact in the region and beyond.

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Music:

Allemande (by Wahneta Meixsell)
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Timestamps:

0:00 Introduction
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Sources:

Arsim Ejupi (2018)The idea of MoravaVardar water canal and its longterm geopolitical context. In: GeoScape, 12(2), 8491.

Dobrivoje Jovanovski (1993) Morava – Vardar (Axios) Navigation Route. Online: http://danubecooperation.com/danubiu...

Dragan Dunčić, Jelena Lukić (2013) The Project to Construct the DanubeMoravaVardarAegean Canal

Alkis John Corres, Basil Tselentis (2014) An inland waterway option for sustainable freight transport in southeastern Europe. Online: https://www.researchgate.net/publicat...

Milena Nikolic, Dragan Dincic (2014) The Waterway DanubeMoravaAegean (Schiller Institute conference) Online:    • Nikolic & Duncic  Die Wasserstraße D...  
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#china #balkans #geopolitics