India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor is India’s answer to China’s BRI

Participants in IMEC (India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor) are expected to meet next month to decide on the architectural framework for the historical infrastructure network physically and digitally connecting many countries. The IMEC was born during the G20 leaders summit in New Delhi in September and the ambitious targets it has set for itself make it one of the most powerful eco-political tools to counter the growing influence of China.

The MoU reads “Pursuant to this, the Governments of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, the European Union, the Republic of India, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), the French Republic, the Federal Republic of Germany, the Italian Republic, and the United States of America (the “Participants”) commit to work together to establish the India - Middle East - Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). The IMEC is expected to stimulate economic development through enhanced connectivity. “

As conceived by the participating countries, it aims to create 2 corridors, linking India to the Middle East in the Arabian Gulf and further connecting the Gulf to Europe. The aim is to develop a railway network to facilitate the seamless transmission of goods and services across, India, Israel, UAE, Saudi Arabia and finally Europe. This ambitious infrastructure project was blessed by America which is increasingly using multilateral bodies such as the QUAD ( a grouping of India, Japan, the US and Australia) and I2U2 ( India, Israel, UAE and the US) to maintain its influence on the shifting sands of geopolitics. It is worth mentioning that all four I2U2 nations are participants in the IMEC. These four nations are meeting at regular intervals to cooperate on key areas of secure supply chains, countering terrorism and solutions to climate change.

The white house fact sheet released post the launch of IMEC read “The United States and our partners intend to link both continents to commercial hubs and facilitate the development and export of clean energy; lay undersea cables and link energy grids and telecommunication lines to expand reliable access to electricity; enable innovation of advanced clean energy technology; and connect communities to secure and stable Internet. Across the corridor, we envision driving existing trade and manufacturing and strengthening food security and supply chains.” The white house also committed to increasing investments in regional investment initiatives such as the IMEC.

The IMEC is a direct challenge to the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) which is being actively deployed by the dragon as a geo-strategic tool to increase its influence in global affairs. Crafted like IMEC, China, BRI has managed to bring in nearly 150 countries and about 25 international organisations as signatories to the infrastructure investment it pushes. In a decade of its existence, the BRI has managed to give China access to strategic ports and transnational road and rail networks, which have increasingly started to threaten the national sovereignty of many nations including India.

The opaque investment conditions under BRI have also arm-twisted many nations to surrender their strategic infrastructure assets to China. India has been at the forefront of opposing the BRI scheme over national security concerns, as China is actively constructing an economic corridor with Pakistan, over India-claimed territories. The China-Pakistan economic corridor could also be dialled up for military use in case of escalations with India. The IMEC is India’s opportunity to have a robust say in regional infrastructure connectivity and retain its edge over China. Chinese state-run media has criticised the IMEC terming it as the Modern Spice route, created by the US. Chinese foreign policy experts have lectured IMEC participants to not compete with BRI and that any regional connectivity initiative should have a China presence. These sparks are expected to become fireballs in a few months’ time when the IMEC participants lay the paperwork for this regional transnational rail, ports and digital and energy connectivity.

(The writer is a policy analyst; views are personal)