Forty-five years after it was first proposed, a modern
version of the ancient Silk Road that once linked Asia with
Europe is taking shape, in the form of a 140,000 km web of
highways and ferry routes that will again connect the two
continents.  The Asian Highway Agreement, signed by 23
Asian nations, including China, Japan and South Korea is
intended to ensure construction of a road system that would
ease the isolation of many landlocked Asian nations and
establish a modern version of the ancient trading route that
once linked the continent to Europe by camel train.  The
Asian Highway would be not one road but an entire system of
routes that by land and sea would connect Tokyo to Turkey,
and Bhutan to Bulgaria.  Large nations like Japan,
China, South Korea, Russia and India would benefit from the
better trade links a unified highway system would
bring.  But the project is also designed to help
smaller, landlocked countries gain coveted routes to sea
ports.

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