India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) (International Relations)

Why in news?

The transcontinental India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) was announced on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi.

The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) – a grand US-led connectivity project that would link India to Europe via the Gulf.

The initial memorandum of understanding for IMEC – signed by the United States, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, India, the United Arab Emirates, and Saudi Arabia – envisioned two sections: an eastern maritime link between India and the Gulf, and a northern section that would connect the Arabian Peninsula to Europe. These would be connected by a new railway network to link the Gulf with the Mediterranean through Jordan and Israel. Beyond the transport infrastructure, undersea cables would facilitate the exchange of data, while long-distance hydrogen pipelines would boost the participants’ climate and decarbonisation goals.  

About India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC)

• The IMEC will comprise of two separate corridors- the east corridor connecting India to the Gulf and, the northern corridor connecting the Gulf to Europe.
• The corridor will provide reliable and cost-effective cross-border ship-to-rail transit network to supplement existing maritime routes. 
• It intends to increase efficiency, reduce costs, secure regional supply chains, increase trade accessibility, enhance economic cooperation, generate jobs and lower greenhouse gas emission, resulting in a transformative integration of Asia, Europe and the Middle East (West Asia). The IMEC corridor, which aims at integration of Asia, Europe and the Middle East involves multiple stakeholders and is at an incipient stage.
• With IMEC, the US and the EU aim to draw India closer and counter Chinese influence. The corridor would provide a boost to India’s strategy to escape encirclement by Beijing and become a leader among developing countries. 
• The UAE and Saudi Arabia, meanwhile, embrace IMEC as part of their push to become an economic bridge between East and West.

The IMEC project could help bridge the divides of this fragmenting world, bringing together actors that are not fully aligned. 

The construction of an additional trade route would help boost the resilience of the global trade system to withstand unpredictable shocks, such as the recent Houthi attacks on Red Sea shipping lanes.