The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, agreed upon at the recent G20 Summit in India, will lay down a network of rail and shipping lines running by sea from India to the Middle East, then overland to the Mediterranean, and through Greece into Europe. President Joe Biden hailed the agreement during the G20 Summit in New Delhi.
USA President Joe Biden: “It’s about creating jobs, increasing trade, strengthening supply chains, boosting connectivity, laying foundations that will strengthen commerce and food security for people across multiple countries.”
The head of the European Union Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, agreed. “This corridor is much more than just a railway or a cable. It is a green and digital bridge across continents and civilizations.”
But will it be enough to counter China’s massive decade-old Belt and Road Initiative, which has signed on some 150 countries?
Zack Cooper of the American Enterprise Institute says in an interview by VOA News: “I don’t see this as a direct global competitor to Belt and Road. This may be a way to provide infrastructure to a handful of countries.”
But the reality is that a lot of those countries already have a fair amount of investment support, right? So Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Israel probably don’t need huge infusions of cash. So I think this is progress, but it may be more of a political way to try and tie Israel and the Saudis together more closely than it is a really attractive long-term infrastructure play.
And while China is in the lead in terms of both time and money, analyst Aparna Pande says this more modest project is still worthy. And she added, it’s not a hub-and-spoke design like the BRI. Many more countries could benefit even though the scale is smaller.
Aparna Pande: “Should this have been done a decade earlier? Absolutely. Should this not be done because we are a decade late? I don’t think so.”
But the project, which has an ambitious 60-day deadline for countries to develop and agree on an action plan, has already hit a speed bump. At the summit, Turkey’s president seemed to praise the idea. But en route home to Ankara, he told journalists that the idea of bypassing Turkey would not work.
Cooper says: “I’m sure Turkey would like to be in the deal. US- Turkey relationship is pretty difficult right now, and Turkey doesn’t have a particularly easy relationship with Saudi Arabia or Israel either, and certainly not with Greece. So I think Turkey being part of the deal is possible, but there are probably a lot of countries that are going to be looking for some Turkish policy changes if Turkey is going to be part of it.”
As Biden emphasized, it’s a real big deal. But how soon can it be a real thing?
Photo Credit: https://www.narendramodi.in/g20_home
Text Source: VOA News, Anita Powell, G20 Leaders Sign Deal on Infrastructure Corridor from India to Europe