Azerbaijan's victory in war will induce Georgia to build the port of Anaklia

Economists in Georgia are analyzing the consequences of the new geological politics in the south of the Caucasus after the end of the Patriotic War in Karabakh. They concluded that Azerbaijani-Armenian communications will open in the future, not soon, and Georgia may lose its status as a monopoly transit country for Azerbaijani goods.

There are different radical opinions about the losses that are critical for the Georgian economy, but most analysts are inclined to think that it is an exaggeration to consider the opening of transport corridors through Armenia something tragic or even negative for Georgia. On the other hand, Tbilisi will have to think about increasing the competitive attractiveness of its transit routes; this may even become an incentive for the economy.

“It is necessary to work together with our strategic partners to increase the attractiveness of Georgia as a transit corridor, and this is impossible without putting things in order on the railway, developing port infrastructure on the Black Sea, and building the deep-water port of Anaklia, which was stopped for political reasons. In fact, nothing harms our transit potential as much as the actions of our authorities. Our Western partners tell us about this directly. The development of the port infrastructure can ensure the successful development of Georgia as an important transport corridor and seriously increase the geopolitical weight in the region,” Teona Akubardia from the Georgian Center for Strategic Analysis GSAC writes to Apsny.ge.

The Black Sea port of Anaklia is considered the main transit facility in Georgia, which will allow this country to win in competition with the Russian-Azerbaijani-Armenian railway. Georgia's access to the world's seas makes this country the winner in the transit competition with Azerbaijan. The Caspian Sea is a closed body of water.

For this, the port of Anaklia must become deep-water to receive ocean-going heavy ships. It turns out that the main obstacle to this construction is Russia, which does not need the strengthening of Georgia for political reasons.

Georgia blames the former leader of the ruling Georgian Dream party, Birdzina Ivanishvili, for secret schemes to destroy the international consortium for the construction of Anaklia.

The authorities   and justice organs accuse the main supervisors of the construction, the founders of TBC Holding, Mamuka Khazaradze and Badri Japaridze, of money laundering. Khazradze and Japaridze are convinced that behind their troubles and problems with the construction of a deep-water port are the personal interests of the founder of the ruling Georgian Dream billionaire Bidzina Ivanishvili and the Russian authorities.

In January 2020, the Georgian government terminated the contract with the consortium of Khazaradze and Japaridze.

Georgian Minister of Economy and Sustainable Development Natia Turnava denies the political overtones of the collapse of the construction consortium in Anaklia.

“The port of Anaklia is a strategic priority for us and the only project mentioned in the Constitution of Georgia. There is a concrete plan to bring in a new, more successful inspector, who will eventually be able to launch this important project together with the government,” she said a year ago.

Khazaradze called Turnav's claims a lie: “Georgia would become a logistics hub between Eurasia and Europe. Many European countries would be interested in Georgia’s security and stability. The Russian Federation is doing everything it can to undermine these efforts, because this port would have a great economic impact not only on Georgia, but also on Romania. Unfortunately, I think that the current government of Georgia is under the pressure of the Kremlin. "

Since then, Georgia has not advanced on the Anaklia project. In July 2020, the Anaklia Development Consortium filed a lawsuit with the Arbitration Court of the International Chamber of Commerce against the Georgian government demanding the payment of $ 1 billion. There is no other information about this lawsuit.

 The Georgian government claims that the purpose of the lawsuit is to try to politicize the topic and hinder the search for new investors, Minister Turnava said July 30.

Since then, the region has changed and the opening of an alternative road to the Georgian route through the Armenian Meghri is becoming a reality. The Georgian side can respond to the new significant circumstance by intensifying efforts to resume work at the port of Anaklia, so that Georgia continues to receive dividends from geopolitical traffic; but until now, there are no signs of such activity.

According to the project documentation, in 2020 the construction of the port of Anaklia on the Black Sea should already be completed. Despite state support, for the entire period of the contract the consortium was unable to attract funding, fulfill obligations and move forward in the construction of the facility.

The consortium was formed by the large American construction company Conti International LLC and the Georgian company TBC Holding LLC. In January 2020, the Georgian government decided to terminate the contract with the Anaklia Development Consortium, when in December 2019 the company was unable to fulfill its obligations under the agreement for the seventh time and report on spending a $ 400 million loan.

Over the four years of the contract, the contractor was able to complete only  deepening the bottom. The consortium believes that it has fulfilled all the conditions of the agreement and accused the Georgian government of insufficient support for the investor and creating obstacles to work.

It was assumed that the port of Anaklia would be the largest seaport in the region with a cargo turnover of up to 100 thousand tons of cargo per month. In addition, experts pointed to the possibility of using the port to receive NATO warships.