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.
Strategic Partnerships
During a visit to China on 12 September, Georgia’s Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili praised the Anaklia port project, saying that “strategic cooperation with China is very important for Georgia” and highlighting the importance of the two countries’ “cooperation in strategically important projects.”
China’s Presence, Activities and Influence in the South Caucasus
Propaganda and Disinformation
In a material published on 9 August, China’s embassy in Georgia made the following claim: “NED [National Endowment for Democracy] funded the establishment of three local NGO groupings in Georgia at the beginning of the 21st century to organize demonstrations in capital Tbilisi. In May 2024, NED rallied support for and instigated protests in Georgia against the foreign agents bill.” The Chinese material was later used by the Georgian government for its own messaging.
Diplomatic Messaging
In an article published by a Georgian newspaper on 21 August, China’s ambassador to Georgia, Zhou Qian, pushed forward Beijing’s foreign policy concept of a global “community with a shared future.”
Economic Involvement and Connections
Azerbaijani Minister of Digital Development and Transport, Rashad Nabiyev, stated in late September 2024 that the volume of rail transit traffic between Azerbaijan and China had increased by 275 percent in January-August 2024 compared to the same period of 2023.
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Azerbaijani media reported on 15 August that Azerbaijan’s president Ilham Aliyev had signed the approval of the 1 July memorandum of understanding with China “on the Development of Trans-Caspian International Transport Routes for the China-Europe Railway Express.”
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During the visit of the Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Levan Davitashvili to China on 12-13 September, the two sides signed a “Memorandum of Understanding on Promotion of Transport Corridors for China-Europe Railway Express, Trans-Caspian International Transport Route (Middle Corridor).” The memorandum’s purpose is to “contribute to the growth of cargo flows through the Middle Corridor from China to Europe and vice versa.”
Stances and Activities by Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia Benefiting China’s Foreign Policy
Support for the Belt and Road Initiative
In a letter to the Chinese leader Xi Jinping in late September, Azerbaijani president Ilham Aliyev stressed the two countries’ “productive collaboration within the Belt and Road Initiative and the Middle Corridor projects.”