| Introduction: Give brief introduction of IMEE-EC. Body: What are the potential economic benefits of the IMEE-EC for India? Conclusion: Way forward. |
The recently concluded G20 summit in India witnessed a historic moment when Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launching of a connectivity corridor spanning India to Europe via West Asia. Officially called the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, it is being positioned as a modern-day Spice Route, and more significantly, as a weighty ideological alternative to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.
What are the potential economic benefits of the IMEE-EC for India?
- Enhanced Trade Connectivity: Initiatives like IMEE-EC can improve India’s trade connectivity with Europe and the Middle East by developing better infrastructure, such as ports, roads, railways, and logistics hubs. This can lead to reduced transportation costs, faster transit times, and increased trade volumes.
- Alternate transportation route: By integrating India’s hydrocarbon value chain and establishing an innovation corridor for green energy and innovative technology manufacturing value chains, this connectivity architecture could provide India with an alternative trans-regional commercial transportation route.
- India-Arab-Mediterranean multi-modal corridor: IMEE-EC could act as a bridge to connect important cities like Mumbai and the European mainland via the Greek transshipment port of Piraeus, the Israeli port of Haifa, and Dubai port, with a significant part of the route traversing through the Saudi Arabian mainland.
- Boost to self-reliance: To increase India’s capacity and self-reliance, IMEE-EC would assist and improve the infrastructure in the logistics and transportation industry. It will help in achieving progress in initiatives such as Make in India, Sagarmala, and Atmanirbhar Bharat.
Comparison with China’s BRI:
- Nature & Scope: BRI is a massive global infrastructure and economic development initiative spanning multiple continents, while IMEE-EC may focus on a specific region (Europe and the Middle East). IMEE-EC is jointly launched by the US and India and spans connectivity and infrastructure running through India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Israel, and the European Union while BRI is wholly a Chinese infrastructure project.
- Geopolitical Implications: BRI has faced criticism for its geopolitical implications, including concerns about debt dependency. IMEE-EC may have a different geopolitical dynamic, depending on the countries involved and their interests & ensuring sustainable development.
- India’s interest: IMEE-EC will increase India’s trade cooperation with countries of the Middle East & provide an alternate route to the busy Suez Canal. On the other hand, BRI entails a CPEC corridor that passes through PoK violating India’s sovereignty.
Conclusion:
The new route would be an alternative to China’s BRI providing an alternate supply chain route that will encourage and provide impetus to economic development through enhanced connectivity and economic integration between Asia, West Asia/Middle East, and Europe.
