The Eurasian railway route is undergoing a fundamental transformation associated with the replacement of lost transit volumes with cargo moving via the China-EAEU-China route. The reorientation of Russia’s trade and economic relations towards the East provides opportunities for the development of the route in this direction.

Geographically and historically, transport and trade have united Eurasia as much as geopolitical conflicts and imperial rivalries have kept it fragmented. Since the 2000s and even more so with the launch of the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) and the Eurasian integration (EAEU) in progress, opportunities for a major diversification and modernization of the economies of continental Eurasia via transport and trade integration, at both a regional and global level, have risen dramatically and have in fact never been greater.