Author: David Batashvili
China Radar: South Caucasus is a monthly publication by Rondeli Foundation (GFSIS) dedicated to China’s activities and influence in the three nations of South Caucasus.
With the global rise of great power tensions and competition related to China’s role in the world, Rondeli Foundation began to take a closer look at China’s role in our own region. Since July 2020, we have been publishing China’s Activities in the South Caucasus digest that exhaustively covers events and developments in this regard. China Radar builds on China’s Activities digest to provide experts, researchers, civil servants and other observers of China’s foreign strategy with a comprehensive summary of China’s political, diplomatic, economic, informational, soft power and other activities towards Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia as well as these nations’ stances and actions concerning China.
Sources of information provided in China Radar can be found in the issues of China’s Activities digest covering the relevant months unless indicated otherwise. All issues of both China Radar and China’s Activities digest can be found on Rondeli Foundation’s China Watch page.
China’s Presence, Activities and Influence in the South Caucasus
Political Activities
On 14 November, the Chinese Communist Party signed a memorandum of cooperation with Azerbaijan’s ruling New Azerbaijan Party.
Diplomatic Messaging
On 29 November, China’s embassy in Georgia held an event dedicated to “a community with a shared future for mankind.” The Chinese ambassador, Zhou Qian, said in his speech there that Georgia was a “good partner” of China in building such a “community,” and that China wished to deepen cooperation with it under the Chinese leader Xi Jinping’s Global Development Initiative, Global Security Initiative, and Global Civilization Initiative. The ambassador also said that “with the deepening bilateral cooperation including big infrastructure projects like the Anaklia Port, Chinese Belt and Road Initiative will better dovetail with the Middle Corridor and Georgia’s juncture role in the region will be enhanced.”
Economic Involvement and Connections
Armenia’s trade with China reportedly grew by 37.7 percent in the first eight months of 2024.
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Georgian media reported on 2 October that 728.1 percent more cargo containers had gone through Georgia from or to China in January-August 2024 than in the same period of 2023.
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The first container train carrying export goods from Azerbaijan to China departed from the Azerbaijani capital Baku on 24 November 2024.
Stances and Activities by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia Benefiting China’s Foreign Policy
Support for the Belt and Road Initiative
In a meeting with the Chinese deputy premier Ding Xuexiang on 14 November, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev stressed his country’s willingness to engage with China within the Belt and Road Initiative framework. Aliyev also expressed his support for the major international concepts pushed forward by the Chinese leader Xi Jinping – the Global Development Initiative, the Global Security Initiative, and the Global Civilization Initiative.
Other Support for China and its Policies
At a joint event with the Chinese ambassador to Georgia on 21 October, the Georgian prime minister, Irakli Kobakhidze, said that China “sets a good example for other superpowers how to take care of strengthening the positions of your own state without creating any difficulties for peace in the world, and, on the contrary, being a promoter of peace, spreading peace in other countries.”
