The important issues discussed during Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s three-day visit to France, the India-Midil-East-Europe Corridor (IMEC) was also included. After reviewing the project with French President Emmanuel Macron on Wednesday, the last day of his visit, PM Modi said that this project is very important for bilateral interests. The joint statement issued after the meeting of the two leaders said that PM Modi and President Macron have agreed to work together to implement IMEC.
The IMEC project was launched during the G20 summit held in India in September 2023. On 9 September 2023, India, USA, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union signed a memorandum for the project. But since the launch, this project is hanging in the balance. Due to the Gaza struggle, there was heavy tension in the Middle East, due to which there has been no progress on this project.
Now that there is a ceasefire in Israel and Hamas, it is expected that work on the project will move forward.
What is the IMEC project?
A business corridor will be constructed under the IMEC project which will connect India to Europe via the Middle East.
The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement last year that there would be two parts of the corridor- the Eastern Corridor which will connect India to the Gulf countries and another Northern Corridor that will connect Gulf countries with Europe.
Under this corridor, shipping network along with rail network will also be prepared. There will be sea route from Mumbai and Gujarat to UAE. Then a rail network will be prepared in countries across the Middle East. This rail network will be up to UAE, Saudi, Jordan and Israel. Pre -existing infrastructure will also be used.
After this, two marine trading routes will be built. The first route will go from Haifa port in Israel to Italy and the second route will go from Israeli port to France. The entire corridor will be six thousand kilometers long, in which there will be a sea route of three and a half thousand km.
How much benefit India?
It is believed that the IMEC will prove to be a game changer for international trade. India is also going to benefit greatly from this because it will save India 40% time than the present time in bringing India to Europe.
It takes more than a month for India to deliver goods to Germany by sea route, but after the corridor is built, goods can be transported from India to Germany within two weeks.
India’s exports will also increase with this corridor and the cost of freight will also be reduced.
IMEC will answer China’s belt and road initiative
IMEC is considered to be the cut of China’s ambitious project ‘Belt and Road Initiative (BRI)’. Through BRI, China has created infrastructure of trade and connectivity in hundreds of countries of the world. Through this project, China is getting strategic lead globally and it is believed that IMEC can balance it.
China has been teased from the IMEC project from the beginning. When this project was launched in India, China’s official newspaper Global Times published several articles saying that this project could stop due to lack of funding.
Global Times, while counting the merits of BRI, had said that even if the IMEC project is formed, it will not be able to compete with the Chinese project.
In another article, the Global Times had even said that IMEC is not a profitable deal for India, but India should also be connected to BRI so that its economic growth is more rapid.
Looking at the Chinese attitude towards IMEC, it is clear that any progress on the IMEC project will make it chilly.
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