Discussions are underway between Abu Dhabi wealth fund ADQ and Türkiye to construct a railway across Istanbul’s Bosporus strait. This endeavor aims to create a trade route connecting Europe, the Middle East, and Asia, as reported by officials familiar with the situation.
The proposed railway would utilize the Yavuz Sultan Selim suspension bridge for its course. This development comes in the wake of President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s visit to the UAE earlier this year, where the UAE announced an investment plan worth approximately $51 billion over three years.
The UAE anticipates that its bilateral trade with Türkiye will escalate to $40 billion by 2030. Target sectors for investments include energy, logistics, tourism, and agriculture. Furthermore, Türkiye intends to connect the Gulf nations to its extensive railway and highway systems. This railway project might be a precursor to more infrastructural undertakings to facilitate this ambition.
In a recent interaction with journalists, President Erdoğan shared details about corridor discussions held with Gulf states at the G-20 summit in India. He said, “We are discussing a corridor to Europe via Iraq, Qatar, the UAE, and Türkiye.”
His UAE counterpart, Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, has expressed eagerness to accelerate negotiations and aims to begin construction within the next two months. To this end, President Erdoğan has directed Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan and Transport Minister Abdulkadir Uraloğlu to take necessary steps.
It’s also worth noting that there’s rising interest from the UAE in other Turkish projects. This includes metro developments in Istanbul and the anticipated Ankara-Istanbul “super high-speed train” project, which will traverse from Ankara’s Sincan district to Istanbul, utilizing one lane of the Yavuz Sultan Selim bridge.
