MARITIME ROUTE. LAND ROUTE. POLAR ROUTE? TRANSPORTATION STRATEGIES TO CONNECT ASIA TO EUROPE
MARITIME ROUTE. LAND ROUTE. POLAR ROUTE? TRANSPORTATION STRATEGIES TO CONNECT ASIA TO EUROPE

Summary/Abstract: ‘The New Silk Road’, ‘the Polar Route’, ‘the Eurasian Corridor’, ‘the String of Pearls’, all of these concepts have in common the aim to serve as promising, alternative trade routes for Mainland China and Europe. Whatever solution may be chosen, opportunities and dilemmas have to be weighted by all the stakeholders involved in the process of importing and exporting goods. Related business topics to consider are: the making-up of extra cargo volume in Central Asia, the strategic stopover onto the domestic Russian market, cross-trading opportunities in the Indian Ocean transshipment hub, and gaining access to promising polar markets. The paper considers these routes, focusing on the logistical and geopolitical challenges that have to be tackled in order to turn opportunities into real transportation success stories. Our analysis tests the robustness of the transportation chain, taking into consideration the “must-haves logistics” along with political and geopolitical matters sometimes undervalued by supply chain-focused actors. The paper concludes with a discussion proposing to enlarge the current international cooperation between Asia and Europe.

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