Red Med Project Helps Create Chinese Silk Road

With a 300 km high speed railway between Eilat and Ashdod in Israel, China will finance a new overland link between Mediterranean and Red Sea ports.

Once complete, the “New Silk Road”, a high speed rail network from Beijing through Central Asia to Europe, will be able to get passengers by rail from Beijing to the English Channel in under two days. This should be complete within the next ten years.

The Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi has made a number of trips to what he terms “West Asia” to meet government officials from Saudi Arabia, Israel, Iran and a number of other countries in the GCC region. His work has been focused on financing and supporting new rail and sea networks throughout what the West refers to as the Middle East but China terms West Asia.

60% of China’s oil comes from the region and most of its exports pass through it to Europe and the West. Most of China’s investment in the networks will be in infrastructure projects but this in turn will significantly benefit the country geopolitically.