In 2013, China announced its Belt and Road Initiative for the first time. Since then, the country has been spearheading a staggering amount of mega-investments across the entire planet. One of these investments is a potential game-changing project in the Balkans: The Danube-Morava-Vardar/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 Morava-Vardar water canal and its long-term geopolitical context. In: GeoScape, 12(2), 84-91.

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

Dragan Dunčić, Jelena Lukić (2013) The Project to Construct the Danube-Morava-Vardar-Aegean 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 Danube-Morava-Aegean (Schiller Institute conference) Online:    • Nikolic & Duncic - Die Wasserstraße D...  
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#china #balkans #geopolitics