In the early hours of October 6, drones struck two merchant ships in Bulgaria’s exclusive economic zone in the Black Sea, sinking one of them and causing alarm and outrage in both Bulgaria and the European Union (EU). The drone attacks come as the EU is pushing for Bulgaria to become a key entry point for goods imported from Asia into the bloc along a trade route known as the Middle Corridor.
The Middle Corridor, also called the Trans-Caspian Transport Corridor by the EU, connects Europe and Asia. It starts in China and passes through Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey before reaching the EU. Although the corridor is mostly made up of railways and roads, short sections of it cross the Black and Caspian Seas.
This year, the EU announced its intention to invest heavily in this trade route - a move that could affect Bulgaria's railway network, roads and ports. In September, EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Koss called Bulgaria "the gateway to European connectivity" because of its strategic location on this route.
Wars have disrupted global trade routes
A few months earlier, Koss said that the Middle Corridor could significantly reduce transport time from Asia to Europe - from 45 days to just 15 days - and that it was safer than the two traditional routes for transporting goods from Asia to Europe. One of them was the overland Northern Corridor route through Russia. Trade on this route has seen a sharp decline since Russia’s large-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. The other route, sometimes called the “ocean route,” involves shipping goods via the Red Sea and the Suez Canal. But concerns about disruptions caused by wars and instability in the Middle East mean that many goods are now being shipped all the way around Africa, a journey that takes about 45 days. This causes delays and costs for both businesses and consumers.