China Walks Away From Georgia's Strategic Deep-Water Port Project

China has walked away from the Anaklia Deep Sea Port project, ending speculation over one of Georgia’s most important infrastructure projects. The Georgian government now says it wants to develop and operate the port on its own.

Few infrastructure projects in the Caucasus have been as geopolitically embattled as Anaklia. The project was launched in 2016, with a consortium of Georgian and US companies taking the lead in construction. The Georgian Dream government eventually canceled the $2.5 billion contract in 2020 and hit pause for a few years. In mid-2024, Georgian officials re-awarded a construction contract to a Chinese consortium, underscoring the government’s geopolitical pivot away from the US and European Union to Russia and China.

Georgian officials now say the port will be developed under a “landlord” model, with the state retaining ownership of core infrastructure while bringing in international partners in limited capacities. The statement made no mention of the Chinese consortium previously selected for the project, a silence that effectively confirms months of speculation that Beijing lost interest in the venture.

China’s state-owned China Communications Construction Company (CCCC) and its Singapore-registered subsidiary, China Harbour Investment, gained a 49 percent stake in the port in 2024. By late 2025, however, reports began circulating that the consortium was no longer involved. The July 6 announcement by the Georgian government appears to formalize that exit.

“The ‘landlord’ model will give the state the opportunity to develop the Anaklia Port not with a single partner, as previously planned, but simultaneously in partnership with several states and companies. This will create the best conditions for attracting cargo to the port and, consequently, for ensuring its maximum efficiency,” Economy Minister Mariam Kvrivishvili said.

Kvrivishvili noted the growing importance of the Middle Corridor, a trade route linking Asia and Europe while bypassing Russia, describing Anaklia as “not only regional but also internationally significant as a strategic infrastructure project.” She argued that heightened foreign interest requires a model that safeguards state control. 

“The state will be the owner of the Anaklia Deep Sea Port. No one else will own a project that is so strategically important for our country,” she said.

The government is targeting 2029 for the port’s first phase to become operational, though it has yet to name a single confirmed partner or investor. Kvrivishvili said Tbilisi “particularly welcomes” investment from countries along the Middle Corridor. Western nations, with whom Georgian Dream’s relations have soured considerably, went unmentioned.

Uzbek officials recently visited the site and expressed vague interest in participating in the facility’s development.

Georgia has plans to invest $7 billion into strategic transport infrastructure by 2032, a package that includes funding for the Anaklia project, the modernization of Georgian Railways and the completion of the country’s high-speed highway network. 

Critics note that construction has never been the hard part of any port project; keeping it running profitably for decades is. Many read Georgia’s move as consistent with a broader pattern from Bidzina Ivanishvili’s Georgian Dream government – a calculated move to secure for Georgia a Middle Corridor role while trying to win back some goodwill from Western partners it has alienated through its authoritarian drift. Full state ownership of the port fits into that strategy.

By Eurasianet