New container hub at Kazakh port facilitates Trans-Caspian transportation

The container hub at the Kazakh port of Aktau, a flagship project of high-quality Belt and Road cooperation between China and Kazakhstan, began operations last week, adding strong vitality to the Trans-Caspian International Transport Route.

The Trans-Caspian International Transport Route stretches from China through Kazakhstan and the Caspian Sea to Azerbaijan and Georgia, with further extensions to Turkey and European countries.

The new container hub, located on the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea, serves as a modern supply and dispatch center for this transport route.

Against the backdrop of profound transformation in global logistics and accelerated redistribution of cargo flows, the Trans-Caspian route has rapidly gained importance over the past few years. In 2024 alone, the cargo volume along this route in Kazakhstan surged by an astonishing 33 times year on year.

Artem Rozdolsky, a crane operator who has worked at the port for nearly 20 years, said most of the containers he has handled came from China, and the port's cargo throughput has risen substantially over the past five years.

"As you can see, the yard is packed with containers. The number is much higher than before," he said.

"In the first four months of this year, the port's throughput already reached 25,000 TEU. If the current growth momentum continues, this year's total throughput may break last year's record," said Amir Atambayev, acting chairman of the port.

To accommodate surging cargo, the port has undergone upgrades, including the purchase of new cargo ships and gantry cranes, and the expansion of berths.

Covering an area of 19 hectares, the container hub boasts a storage capacity of over 2,000 twenty-foot equivalent units (TEUs) and a designed annual throughput of 240,000 TEUs.

To ensure logistics efficiency, 11 new dedicated railway lines will be built for the container hub, with the first batch of tracks already under construction.

The project has created numerous job opportunities for the local community.

"This is the fourth China-invested project I've participated in. In all the companies I've worked for, I've collaborated with Chinese colleagues, and I really like it. I understand Chinese culture and the Chinese people's ways of thinking. In fact, Kazakhstan has much to learn from China," said Bulikpayev, a quality supervision engineer of the project.

"This project represents a strategic alignment of infrastructure connectivity between China and Kazakhstan. Upon completion, it will significantly boost the regional economy," said Chang Jianbing, general manager of the Aktau International Container Port Limited Liability Partnership.

Rozdolsky expressed his hope to work at the port until retirement, saying he is confident that this goal will be achieved.

"The port keeps expanding, our potential is enormous, and trade will continue to grow. And we are part of this progress," he said.

Astana, capital of Kazakhstan, is set to host the second China-Central Asia Summit from June 16 to 18. The summit is expected to take the six countries on a new journey toward building a closer China-Central Asia community with a shared future.

New container hub at Kazakh port facilitates Trans-Caspian transportation

Nicaragua's co-foreign minister Valdrack Jaentschke has warned that militarism must never be allowed to rise again, as Japan's recent moves to lift its arms export ban and revise the pacifist Constitution continue to draw international concern.

This year marks the 80th anniversary of the opening of the Tokyo Trials, where Japan's Class-A war criminals from World War II were brought to justice.

In an interview with China Global Television Network (CGTN), Valdrack Jaentschke voiced his concern that today's world order is being undermined by interventionism and other challenges.

"It is necessary for us to remember that after the end of World War II, countries worked hard to build a new international order based on international law. However, regrettably, more than 80 years later, we are seeing that this once explored and attempted order is being challenged by interventionism, a confrontational mindset, and tendencies like 'might makes right.' These are precisely the conditions that gave rise to fascism and militarism in the past, which ultimately led to the tragedy of World War II," he said.

He said the international community has a responsibility to pursue a new international order -- one fundamentally grounded in peace.

"Looking back at the history more than eight decades ago and comparing it with today's reality, it is our responsibility to recognize that the world should, and must, build a new international order that is more just, fairer, rooted in international law, based on a logic of mutual benefit and shared success, and fundamentally grounded in peace," said the minister.

"Today, as we revisit the Tokyo Trials, it is meant to remind the world that such a tragedy must never be repeated -- and that we must do everything in our power to prevent it from happening again. We must stop that dark world -- born from militarism, interventionism, and fascism -- from ever returning," he said.

Nicaraguan FM warns of militarism revival