The presidents of Georgia, Turkey and Azerbaijan inaugurated the start of construction on the Georgian section of the Baku–Akhalkalaki–Kars railway on November 21, the same day Georgia and Turkey signed a free trade agreement.

Saakashvili described the railway project as a “geopolitical revolution” that would provide an alternative to the Russian Trans-Siberian railway for Chinese cargo, at the ceremony in Marabda, a town south of Tbilisi.

He also said the project would help stimulate the local economy in Samtskhe–Javakheti province and provide “tens and hundreds of thousands of jobs in Georgia.”

Foreign Minister Gela Bezhuashvili described it as a “breakthrough,” and “another step in our efforts to develop strategic partnerships with our neighbours, Azerbaijan and Turkey.”

The trilateral agreement to begin construction work on the railway was signed in February, along with a declaration on a “common vision for regional cooperation.”

However, support for the project has not come from all quarters. Armenia claims the Baku–Akhalkalaki–Kars railway will make it more economically isolated, and Washington has prohibited US companies from financing it due to pressure from the Armenian lobby.

The EU would rather see more transit links between Georgia’s Black Sea ports and its member states Bulgaria and Romania.

While it has already refused to include the Baku–Akhalkalaki–Kars project in European Neighborhood Action plans for Georgia and Azerbaijan; the EU-funded Transport Corridor Europe Caucasus Asia (TRACECA) project has provided financial assistance to Georgia’s Poti port.

Some analysts foresee domestic economic conflict between seaports and the new railway.

Archel Gegeshidze, a foreign policy expert at the Georgian Foundation for International and Strategic Studies, told the Messenger that given competition from Russian and Iranian transport corridors, the Baku–Akhalkalaki–Kars railway may be hard pushed to find additional volumes of trade.

“Increasing the annual transit of the railway to 20 million tons is not easy, unless you divert goods from [Georgian] ports,” he said.

However, the expert added that in the short-term Georgia stands to gain economically with increased job opportunities during the construction stage of the project.

Also on November 21, Saakashvili and his Turkish counterpart Abdullah Gul signed bilateral agreements on free trade and prevention of double taxation.

The president said the move would benefit Georgian businesses, especially in the agricultural sector.

Economic Development Minister Giorgi Arveladze called the agreements “one more step in very close cooperation” between the Turkey and Georgia, predicting that annual trade turnover between the two countries would soon reach USD one billion.

Since Moscow imposed an embargo on Georgia in October 2006, Turkey has overtaken Russia as Georgia’s biggest trade partner, accounting for around 14 percent of Georgia’s entire trade turnover between January and September.

The details of the agreements have not yet been publicized.