All three countries are heavily involved in overland China — Europe rail traffic and take an interest in improving logistics along the route. For that purpose, they now want to build a new logistics terminal on the Belarusian — Polish border in the town of Svislach. The Chinese company Xi’an Free Trade Port Construction, alongside KTZ Express and Belarusian Unionway LLC put their plans on paper by signing a memorandum of intent on 25 June.
The construction of a new logistics terminal on the Belarusian — Polish border amid deteriorating political relations between East and West could be seen as a somewhat surprising development. Just this week, the EU approved new sanctions targeting Belarus to curb Russian sanction circumvention, which could expand the list of goods that European companies are allowed to transit and export through Belarus. The three signatory parties apparently do not believe that these developments will hamper the growth of freight volumes along the China — Europe route traversing Russia and Belarus.
Transit potential
The Kazakhstan transport ministry expressed such sentiment in a comment about the Svislach terminal: «This step is an important stage in the development of transport infrastructure and the creation of new opportunities to increase the transit potential of Kazakhstan», it commented.
The Svislach terminal is not the first terminal that China and Kazakhstan intend to build in the area to improve their westward connectivity. Earlier this year, the two countries started to build a logistics terminal with Russia in the Moscow region.
