Jun 23, 2026
Kazakhstan’s President Kassym-Jomart Tokayev has arrived in Brussels for a visit to the Belgian government and to assess progress on commitments made to the European Union, according to a report. The visit comes just over a year after the EU and Central Asian nations—Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan—met in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, in April 2025, pledging enhanced cooperation, joint projects, investment, and interconnectivity. For the EU, that meeting was significant because transport routes through the five Central Asian countries, linking Europe with China, offer a valuable alternative to the now-defunct corridors through Russia.
Tokayev is scheduled to meet European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and European Council President Antonio Kosta, who were present at the Samarkand gathering. Ahead of the visit, several Kazakh ministers participated in a series of events in Brussels described as days of business opportunities in Kazakhstan. The main event, organized by the Kazakh administration, focused on presenting the so-called Middle Corridor, its development, and its business potential. This corridor is considered the most strategic project from Europe’s perspective and its economic supply chains.
The Middle Corridor is envisioned as a modern version of the ancient Silk Road, comprising a network of roadways, railroads, and maritime routes connecting China with Black Sea ports. It begins at the port of Lianyungang on China’s eastern coast, passes through China with a main hub in Xian, enters Kazakhstan, and then branches toward Uzbekistan to the south and the Caspian Sea to the west. From there, it becomes a maritime route, linking to ports in Azerbaijan and Georgia before ending at hubs in Romania, Hungary, and Poland. Under current geopolitical circumstances, it is a vital transit route for goods between China and Europe, and it is approximately 3,000 kilometers shorter than the Northern Corridor through Russia.
Kazakhstan hosts 13 international transit corridors and has a highly developed railway system, which, with 100,000 employees, ranks among the ten largest railways in the world. At the Brussels event, Kazakhstan’s Transport Minister Nurlan Sauranbayev and Talgat Aldybergenov, CEO of Railways of Kazakhstan, presented achievements. Kazakhstan has pledged an investment of $50 billion in the corridor’s infrastructure by 2030, with nearly $40 billion already utilized. More than 5,000 kilometers of railroads have been thoroughly modernized or newly built. As a result, a journey of goods from Xian to Georgia that took 55 days three years ago is now completed within 18 days.
Aldybergenov described the task as ambitious, aiming to provide speedy, safe transport with maximum tariff transparency and easy procedures, which should benefit both exporters and importers and enhance trade between Europe and Asia. Representatives of major global shipping companies, freight forwarders, investment banks such as the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development, and EU institutions were in attendance. Aldybergenov stated that Kazakhstan has already invested billions of dollars into infrastructure and will provide infrastructure while securing digitalization of all processes, including transportation capacity. He claimed that this route is the most reliable and transparent for European partners.
Kazakhstan aims to connect European and Chinese stakeholders to make supply chains more reliable. Recently, the Kazakh railway company signed a major deal with the Chinese CGCT railroad administration to oversee shipments from China. Discussions also covered resolving the maritime bottleneck on the Caspian shore, caused by limited port capacity, vessel numbers, and low air cargo volume. Kazakhstan has purchased two additional ships for the Caspian section, with four more to be announced by the end of next year, and the port of Aktau has undergone major water-depth reconstruction. Sauranbayev noted that the country is also working on air transport, with a three-year plan to reconstruct and modernize all runways of the country’s 27 airports, all of which are under reconstruction. He added that Kazakhstan is working hard to establish cargo air traffic and will provide a green corridor for companies interested in developing that line of business.
European Commission representatives welcomed the development achievements. Charlotte Adriaen, Head of the Unit for Central Asia in the Directorate-General for International Partnerships, said the Middle Corridor has moved from a concept to reality, is moving forward, and is the central pillar of the shared connectivity agenda. She added that it has become what the EU calls a global gateway flagship, and should be a diversified, reliable, and efficient transport link, which is more important than ever given the geopolitical and geostrategic situation.
Much of the discussion focused on aspects of corridor development as important as hard infrastructure, such as digitalization of processes using AI to reduce border waiting times, highlighting transparency and predictability. Husseyin Ozhan, Managing Director of the EBRD for Central Asia and Mongolia, noted that the physical backbone still requires investment and that he expects to sign a road project to Aktobe valued at $230 million, an important step toward increasing corridor capacity. He emphasized that predictability is key to investment, and that shippers, freight forwarders, and investors need consistent transport conditions, transparent border rules, tariffs, fee structures, and stable regulatory frameworks. Ozhan explained that while governments and investment banks can build the corridor, it will only be successful when stakeholders see it as a first option for their business.
Elsewhere in Brussels, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Artificial Intelligence and Digital Development Jaslan Madiyev and Minister of Science and Higher Education Sayasat Nurbek discussed global trends in AI infrastructure development, modern approaches to financing digital projects, and prospects for implementing large-scale initiatives in data centers and high-performance computing in Kazakhstan. Their aim was to promote the Kazakhstan Data Center Valley project and create conditions for attracting international investment in a new generation of AI infrastructure.