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Geopolitics of the Cancelled Anaklia Project BLACK SEA STRATEGY PAPERS Geopolitics of the Cancelled Anaklia Project Maximilian Hess & Maia Otarashvili All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopy, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publisher. Authors: Maximilian Hess & Maia Otarashvili The views expressed in this report are those of the author alone and do not necessarily reflect the position of the Foreign Policy Research Institute, a non-partisan organization that seeks to publish well-argued, policy- oriented articles on American foreign policy and national security priorities. Eurasia Program Leadership Director: Chris Miller Deputy Director: Maia Otarashvili Editing: Thomas J. Shattuck Design: Natalia Kopytnik © 2020 by the Foreign Policy Research Institute October 2020 OUR MISSION The Foreign Policy Research Institute is dedicated to producing the highest quality scholarship and nonpartisan policy analysis focused on crucial foreign policy and national security challenges facing the United States. We educate those who make and influence policy, as well as the public at large, through the lens of history, geography, and culture. Offering Ideas In an increasingly polarized world, we pride ourselves on our tradition of nonpartisan scholarship. We count among our ranks over 100 affiliated scholars located throughout the nation and the world who appear regularly in national and international media, testify on Capitol Hill, and are consulted by U.S. government agencies. Educating the American Public FPRI was founded on the premise that an informed and educated citizenry is paramount for the U.S. to conduct a coherent foreign policy. Through in-depth research and extensive public programming, FPRI offers insights to help the public understand our volatile world. Championing Civic Literacy We believe that a robust civic education is a national imperative. FPRI aims to provide teachers with the tools they need in developing civic literacy, and works to enrich young people’s understanding of the institutions and ideas that shape American political life and our role in the world. Georgia’s Doomed Sea Port Ambitions Geopolitics of the Cancelled Anaklia Project About the Authors Maximilian Hess is a Central Asia Fellow in the Eurasia Program at the Foreign Policy Research Institute. He is the Head of Political Risk Analysis and Consulting at AKE International in London, where he also heads the Europe and Eurasia desks. He is a graduate of Franklin & Marshall College and SOAS, University of London. His research focuses on the relationship between trade, debt, international relations and foreign policy, as well the overlap between political and economic networks. Maia Otarashvili is the Deputy Director of Research at the Foreign Policy Research Institute and Deputy Director of its Eurasia Program. She is co-editor of FPRI’s 2017 volume Does Democracy Matter? The United States and Global Democracy Support. Her research focuses on geopolitics and security of the Black Sea-Caucasus region. Her current work examines the post-Soviet frozen conflicts of Abkhazia, South Ossetia, and Transnistria. Maia is a PhD candidate at the War Studies Department at King’s College, London. She holds an M.A. in Globalization, Development and Transition from the University of Westminster in London, with emphasis on post-authoritarian transitions. FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 1 BLACK SEA INITIATIVE Lazika project after coming to power in 2012. INTRODUCTION However, it resurrected the concept in 2015. Such a port would be a part of an entire Georgia has long sought to take advantage industrial city that would be designated a of its strategically important location and Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and serve as establish itself as a significant transit hub a major economic and free trade hub, much connecting Europe and Asia. This endeavor like Singapore. has been slowly advanced by an array of innovative economic reforms, as well as some successful, smaller infrastructure and DESPITE ITS 190-MILE- development projects. However, it has also LONG BLACK SEA been marked by repeated failures in making larger-scale initiatives happen. Despite its COASTLINE, GEORGIA 190-mile-long Black Sea coastline, Georgia still does not have a deep-sea port, and STILL DOES NOT HAVE enjoys very limited overall maritime capacity. A DEEP-SEA PORT, AND This shortcoming poses a major impediment on the country’s aspirations of becoming a ENJOYS VERY LIMITED significant hub for the Eurasian transit system. OVERALL MARITIME Successive governments in Tbilisi have CAPACITY. repeatedly sought to develop a deep-sea port where the Inguri River meets the Black Sea, near the small village of Anaklia. Former This time around, the project seemed President Mikheil Saakashvili (2004 to 2012) ambitious, innovative, and promising. It promoted the development of a deep-sea involved highly qualified, serious technocrats port at the site, which he dubbed Lazika.1 and businessmen with proven, successful However, the project has even deeper roots track records in both Georgia’s government than that: A small pier was built in Anaklia in the and private sectors. Moreover, it included a 1960s and, shortly before the Soviet collapse, diverse group of investors and stakeholders, Georgian geographer Archil Kiknadze and from the United States to Europe to China, architect Giorgi Metreveli were tasked with and significant international backing from drafting plans for a deep-sea port at Anaklia.2 Georgia’s strategic partners in Washington, Neither ever managed to see this ambition D.C., and Brussels. Yet, by 2019, the project through to fruition. The current Georgian again appeared doomed, and, in January Dream government shutdown Saakashvili’s 1 Clement Girardot, “The Rise and Fall of Lazika,” The Tuqay / Ajam Media Collective, March 25, 2013, https://ajammc. com/2013/03/25/the-rise-and-fall-of-lazika/. 2 Tekla Aslanishvili and Orit Halpern, “Scenes from a Reclamation,” e-flux architecture, https://www.e-flux.com/architec- ture/new-silk-roads/313102/scenes-from-a-reclamation/. FOREIGN POLICY RESEARCH INSTITUTE 2 BLACK SEA INITIATIVE 2020, the government officially cancelled it.3 disgruntled Georgian investors leading their own political movement. Moreover, Much like with Lazika, over-politicization of the outcome of the arbitration launched in the project appeared to be one of the main the aftermath of Anaklia’s cancellation may causes for Anaklia’s death. But there were shape the investment climate in Tbilisi going also questions about the project’s financing. forward, as well as the reputation of its key American investors pulled out of the project political figures, in the eyes of Georgia’s well before it was officially cancelled. As Western allies. of this writing, Anaklia Port Company and Dutch investor Bob Meijer are seeking arbitration with Georgia at the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes ANAKLIA 2.0: A (ICSID) over the project’s cancellation. As PROMISING START the arbitration moves forward, the details surrounding these financing issues will come to light. But the significant political and Anaklia, as a deep-sea port, would be well geopolitical consequences of the project’s positioned to serve as a key hub for East- cancellation have begun to unfold already. West trade. Former U.S. Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld identified this potential The promising project’s messy failure might in a 2016 op-ed, and called for the United lead to near-term pessimism about Georgia’s States to be more active in its development.4 ability to ever build a deep-sea port. Yet the And indeed, American companies ended strategic benefits such a project offers means up having a significant role in the project. it is all but certain Tbilisi will try again. The The principal investor in the Anaklia Port Georgian Dream government has already Project was the Anaklia Development considered expanding its existing port Consortium (ADC), which consisted of TBC facilities in Poti, and the idea of a deep-sea port Holding (Georgia), Conti International (U.S.), has broad political support, even if the parties SSA Marine (U.S.), Wondernet Express (UK), differ significantly on who should build it and and G-Star Ltd (Bulgaria).5 The Government how. Objectively examining the failure of the of Georgia granted the consortium $100 Anaklia project is necessary if a new effort is million and exclusive rights to construction, to have a more positive fate. Furthermore, the development, and operation of the city and project and its demise will be an important the port.6 Other investors in the project feature of the 2020 election—with Anaklia’s included Maritime & Transport Business Solutions (The Netherlands), Van Oord (The 3 Georgi Lomsadze, “Georgia Cancels Contract for Black Sea Megaport,” Eurasianet, January 9, 2020, https://eur- asianet.org/georgia-cancels-contract-for-black-sea-megaport. 4 Donald Rumsfeld, “America’s Vital Interests Are at Stake in Georgia,” Wall Street Journal, November 23, 2016, https:// www.wsj.com/articles/americas-vital-interests-are-at-stake-in-georgia-1479861103. 5 “Who We Are,” Anaklia Development Consortium, http://anakliadevelopment.com/about/. 6 “Government of Georgia Invests $100m in Anaklia Deep Sea Port Project,” Global Trade, October 11, 2016, http:// www.globaltrademag.com/global-logistics/government-georgia-invests-100m-anaklia-deep-sea-port-project
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