"Do you know how to fly a helicopter?"/ Viral moment between Erdogan and EU commissioner

Turkey inaugurated a new railway section near its border with Bulgaria, marking a step in the European Union's efforts to strengthen transport links with Central Asia and reduce transport times along the Middle Corridor.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and EU Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos attended the opening of the 153-kilometer Cerkezkoy-Kapikule section, part of the larger Halkali-Kapikule railway connecting Istanbul to the Bulgarian border.

The project cost 275 million euros ($308 million) in EU grant funding through the Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA II), according to a statement from the European Commission.

The Commission described the railway as the largest infrastructure project undertaken so far in EU-Turkey cooperation and the first concrete result of its interregional connectivity agenda, which aims to strengthen transport, energy and digital links between Europe and Central Asia through the South Caucasus and the Black Sea region.

During the inauguration of the railway, a moment was recorded that went viral between Commissioner Kos and President Erdogan.

At one point, while Erdogan is at the helm of the train, Kos asks him if he can also fly a helicopter? The president answers with a "yes."

The new railway section is expected to ease congestion and improve freight capacity along the western end of the Middle Corridor connecting China and Europe through Kazakhstan, the Caspian Sea, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.

According to the commission, the new high-speed link will help reduce transit times along the corridor, which has gained strategic importance as countries seek alternative trade routes between Europe and Asia.

The newly opened section is the longest segment of the 229-kilometer Halkali-Kapikule railway project.

The new section starts in Cerkezkoy in the northwestern province of Tekirdağ and extends to Kapıkule, a major road and rail border crossing near Edirne in northwestern Turkey. Erdogan said the wider project is expected to reduce freight travel time between Halkalı and Kapıkule from 8.5 hours to 3.5 hours, while passenger journeys from four hours to 1.5 hours.

Railway capacity is also expected to increase approximately fourfold, with annual freight capacity projected to increase from 1.5 million tons to 9.5 million tons, according to Turkish officials.

The inauguration follows the EU's launch of its Connectivity Agenda Platform in June, when it announced agreements with international financial institutions that are expected to mobilize up to two billion euros for strategic investments in transport and infrastructure in the Black Sea region and the South Caucasus.

A day before the railway's inauguration, Kos attended an international conference on Corridor VIII in Sofia, Bulgaria, where officials discussed efforts to complete missing transport links through Bulgaria, North Macedonia and Albania.

"Europe has learned the hard way that overdependence makes us vulnerable. We have seen that energy blackmail, critical shortages of raw materials or overreliance on a small number of key trade routes can limit our freedom to act. We must diversify our options," she told the conference.

The opening of the section also comes less than two weeks after a World Bank report highlighted the economic potential of improved transport links along the corridor.

The September 28 report estimated that targeted investments and reforms could triple trade volumes, halve transit times, and create two million additional jobs across the region by 2040.