It took a decade, three administrations, two tender cancellations, a lost arbitration case before the World Bank, and the subtle withdrawal of a Chinese state-owned enterprise to finally reach a port model that port economists would have advocated from the very beginning. On Monday, Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili declared that Anaklia will operate as a landlord model, the state holding a 100% stake in core maritime assets, while international businesses could construct and operate certain facilities under long-term contracts, signalling an end to plans of a single private lead investor and validating what several months of speculation had revealed: Beijing has exited the project. The declaration may be important not in its implications for Georgian politics, although there are many of them, but in its implications for one of the most serious structural challenges that exist in the Middle Corridor.

The bottleneck exists, and it becomes more evident each day. In the first four months of 2026, cargo transit through Georgia increased 21% year on year and 46% over four years, all due to the growth of cargo transit through the Middle Corridor as a result of rerouting China-Europe overland transport from the sanctioned Northern Corridor to the Middle Corridor and from the ocean route disrupted at the same time because of disturbances in the Hormuz and Red Seas. Cargo transit currently passes from the Caspian Sea to the Black Sea via Alat Port in Azerbaijan, via the........

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