The history of the project to build a railway from China to Uzbekistan through the Kyrgyz Republic is just under 30 years old. Its implementation is associated with both the national interests of Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan, and with China’s strategic objectives in Central Asia.
Chinese experts have formulated the concept of the so-called three continental bridges from China to Europe: the first is the Trans-Siberian Railway, including the Trans-Mongolian Corridor and several railway crossings directly from China to the Russian Federation; the second is the Trans-Kazakh railway line heading to Europe through the Russian Federation, the Caspian region and the countries of Central Asia, and also to Iran, with access to the Persian Gulf; the third is a potential railway corridor through Kyrgyzstan to Uzbekistan with further access to both South Asia through Afghanistan and Iran and to the Caspian Sea, with subsequent access to Southern Europe and Turkey. The advantage of the third bridge is a shorter distance and, accordingly, the delivery time of goods compared to other continental bridges. However, there is one nuance — and it is the most important — if two bridges actually exist and are actively developing, then the third one does not physically exist in nature, although a straight line between the existing railway stations of Kyrgyzstan and China is no more than 200 km long.
However, there are several key problems in the implementation of this project.
