Plans for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor – a trade route that would connect the Far East to Europe through Israel and the Arab world – are moving forward. This is happening in spite of the ongoing war in Gaza, which many speculated would derail such initiatives, but apparently has not.
According to a report in Bloomberg, President Emmanuel Macron of France already made moves towards making this a reality. He appointed Gerard Méstrallet, former chairperson and CEO of French energy company Engie, as his envoy for IMEC.
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The project was first announced at the G20 summit held in September 2023 by US President Joe Biden. It is intended to compete with the Chinese “Belt and Road” program. Officially known as the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), is a massive infrastructure development project launched in 2013 by President Xi Jinping. It aims to connect Asia with Africa and Europe through land and maritime networks, potentially impacting a significant portion of the world’s population and GDP.
Such a project as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor could only be imagined since the signing of the Abraham Accords in 2016. The Accords brought peace between Israel and two Arab Gulf states, the UAE and Bahrain. Two African Arab states, Morocco and Sudan, joined later.
Israel previously had peace treaties with only two Arab countries, Jordan and Egypt.
But the overland route to India is still blocked by several nations still hostile to Israel, most notably Iran.
As for the sea route, the shipping between Israel and India already went through the Red Sea, and the Indian Ocean long before the Abraham Accords. And these days that route is threatened by Houthi terrorists based in Yemen who have been launching missiles at international cargo ships that must pass through the narrow straits separating Yemen from Africa in order to travel through the Red Sea.
The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is an ambitious project aiming to create a robust trade and infrastructure network connecting India, the Middle East, and Europe. Launched in September 2023, it envisions a ship-to-rail transit system that would supplement existing maritime routes, potentially revolutionizing trade between these regions.
The corridor comprises two segments:
Eastern Corridor: Connecting India to the Persian Gulf region through ports in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
Northern Corridor: Linking the Gulf region to Europe via Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Greece.
The IMEC is still in its early stages of development. A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, Greece, France, Germany, Italy, and the United States outlines the project’s vision and potential scope.
