BRUSSELS, January 29. /TASS/. EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy Josep Borrell has virtually admitted that the EU’s plans to invest in the transport infrastructure of Central Asian nations are meant to undermine Russia, specifically aimed at getting the region’s countries to back the European Union’s attempts to set up an economic blockade against Russia.

Previously, "Central Asia was in the middle of nowhere, and now it is in the middle of everything," he said at the EU-Central Asia transport investment forum taking place in Brussels.

"In order for the sanctions to be effective we need full cooperation from our partners. We are following closely the trade between us, between Central Asian countries with Russia, we try to analyze the mechanisms that make sanctions being circumvented," Borrell said.

He admitted that the EU sanctions have not yet produced desired results for Brussels. Sanctions "have significantly weakened the war machine, but still they are there and the war continues, and the intensity of the fighting increases, and we don’t see the end or the light at the end of the tunnel," the official stressed.

Borrell also admitted that the EU’s potential investments in Central Asia have are politically motivated.

"We need closer partnership to address global challenges. <…> Yes, we have to build infrastructure, we have to increase the connectivity of our space, but all that serves a political purpose to increase our partnership and to share a better future by increasing economic ties and defending the same values," he concluded.

The European Commission (EC) reported earlier that the EU intends to raise up to 10 bln euro worth of investments to create a transport corridor from Central Asia to Europe through the Caucasus region and Turkey bypassing Russia. At this moment, Brussels is ready to allocate 2.97 bln euro in the form of two credit lines from the European Investment Bank and the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development for those purposes.