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Morava-Vardar Canal

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The Morava-Vardar Canal is a proposed infrastructure project, linking the Vardar river valley in Macedonia with the Morava river valley in Serbia.

Route

The proposed 651km route would link the Danube, via the Morava River, in Serbia with a canal across the border into Macedonia, connecting with the Vardar river, which flows into the Aegean Sea near Thessaloniki. In addition to the new canal itself, long stretches of river would need navigation improvements. Currently, only the lowest 3km of the Morava are navigable.

Planning

In 2012, the Serbian Minister of Natural Resources, Mining and Spatial Planning said that the project would be completed within eight years. In 2013, the director of Serbia’s State Agency for Physical Planning said that it was a realistic project and work would start shortly, with the Chinese government-owned Gezhouba Group Corporation.

Le Figaro published a Chinese-backed proposal in 2017: A 651km route (including new canal and improved river navigation), expected to cost €17 billion. The mayor of Thessaloniki called it a "dream".. As of 2018, one major obstacle to Serb proposals was the lack of intergovernmental agreements between Greece, Macedonia, and Serbia, although the route would not pass through Kosovo; also, joint financing with the European Union appears unlikely.

As of August 2023, no construction has started.

There are proposals to develop railways in the area, which would complement the canal.

Further Reading

References

  1. Vecernje Novosti, August 2012
  2. https://balkaninsight.com/2013/09/26/chinese-investors-give-green-light-for-balkan-channel/
  3. http://www.lefigaro.fr/conjoncture/2017/08/28/20002-20170828ARTFIG00226-athenes-et-belgrade-sollicitent-pekin-pour-relier-le-danube-a-la-mer-egee.php
  4. https://seenews.com/news/chinese-investors-eye-17-bln-euro-waterway-project-in-see-report-594621
  5. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/330255638_The_idea_of_Morava-Vardar_water_canal_and_its_long-term_geopolitical_context/fulltext/5c35ffafa6fdccd6b59ef036/The-idea-of-Morava-Vardar-water-canal-and-its-long-term-geopolitical-context.pdf
  6. https://greekcitytimes.com/2021/04/29/thessaloniki-balkan-maritime/
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