Features
29 Jan 2025
New report: Europe-Asia trade and transport links at risk of being cut off in 52nd Meridian Challenge
The Counter Alignment countries of Russia, Iran, and China have developed the ability to cut off trade and transport links between Europe and Asia, according to a new report released today by Adarga’s Research Institute.
“Europe’s Nightmare: The 52nd Meridian Challenge. Keeping the Trade and Transport Links between Europe and Asia Open to Western Alignment Traffic” examines how the Counter Alignment of Russia, Iran, and China have established a line of influence from north to south along the 52nd Meridian East. This is a line of longitude that travels through Russia, Iran, the Caspian Sea, the Persian Gulf, the mouth of the Red Sea, and down the East coast of Africa.
The report shows how this line of influence, along the environs of the 52nd Meridian, can rapidly be turned into a line of control, as Russia has already done for Western airlines overflying its airspace since the invasion of Ukraine. “If this control was achieved,” said Sam Olsen, the VP of the Adarga Research Institute, “then it would lead to enormous strategic harm to the political, economic, and defence interests of the Western Alignment by cutting or impeding Europe-Asia trade, supply chains, and military movement.”
Adarga’s specialist AI software underpinned the analysis, which also shows how Europe’s relationship with Central Asia is already compromised and could be cut off at any moment, thus putting at risk the EU’s increasing reliance on imports of energy, minerals, and food from the region. Also at risk are any Western military plans that assume unimpeded transport between Europe and Asia in the event of a conflict in the Far East, for example over Taiwan.
The report also considers the UK government’s Chagos Islands deal in the light of this Counter Alignment capability.
Several policy recommendations are made, including calls for the reinforcement of the West’s influence in the Indian Ocean, and for governments and private companies to prepare contingencies for access to Central and East Asian markets being compromised.
The combination of Adarga’s proprietary GenAI and NLP capabilities with deep analytic expertise enabled the report to take into consideration a breadth of global information that wouldn’t be possible via traditional research methods, therefore increasing the quality and depth of insight.
Read the full report here.
