China has signed a deal to construct a railroad through Krygyzstan and Uzbekistan that would bypass sanctions-hit Russia. Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan and China signed the agreement on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization summit. Uzbekistan has embraced the project to improve transport and trade links from Central Asia to Turkey and onward to Europe, on a route that bypasses internationally isolated Russia. China, Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan have signed a long-anticipated agreement to push ahead with the construction of a railroad linking their countries that will, if completed, establish a shorter route to Europe, bypassing sanctions-hit Russia. The three governments signed the agreement on September 14 on the sidelines of a summit of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) in Uzbekistan. The document does not set out a roadmap for construction of the CKU link , which was first mooted a quarter of a century ago but had struggled to get […]