Ontological Status of Transport Initiatives in Eurasia and Influence of the Geopolitical Trends

Eurasian countries have historically been participants in various programs, project initiatives and regional alliances, and under the new conditions, the importance of transport projects has multiplied. At the same time, as the discourse of terminology use grows so does the confusion in the conceptual apparatuses of various scientific and applied contexts related to infrastructure initiatives. Systematization of data and fixation of new trends in the development of the Eurasian transport and logistics network is hampered by the lack of comparable data on the so-called “big” continental transport initiatives. The article analyzes individual global and regional transport initiatives in Eurasia, which at different times were perceived as competing. It is noted that in the Russian-language literature there is increasing confusion between the corridors of the agreed EAEU list, the transport projects of the defunct EurAsEC and the routes of the EDB transport framework concept. In English-language sources, the context in which international and Eurasian transport terminology is used depends largely on countries and/or institutions. It is concluded that currently no global infrastructure initiative can compete with the Chinese “Belt and Road” project. Given the complexity of the geopolitical situation in Eurasia, China’s multivariate approach to route alignment and interconnections allows global and regional trade not to “freeze”, deliver cargo and continue to interact with the countries of the continent in a bilateral format.

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