India-Middle East-Europe Mega Economic Corridor

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the launch of the India-Middle East-Europe Mega Economic Corridor on the sidelines of the G20 summit at the Bharat Mandapam Convention Center in New Delhi.

ABOUT THE CORRIDOR

• IMEC aims to establish economic connectivity between India, the Middle East, and Europe.
• It will address obstacles created by Pakistan’s denial of overland access and China’s connectivity plans in the region.
• The MOU on IMEC was signed by India, USA, Saudi Arabia, UAE, European Union, Italy, France, and Germany.
• The corridor will comprise of two separate corridors,
  • The Eastern corridor – will connect India to the Arabian Gulf.
  • The Northern corridor- will connect the Arabian Gulf to Europe.
• The corridor involves railway, ship-rail transit, and road transport routes.
• The rail and shipping corridor is part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment (PGII).
• Better connectivity is seen as a means to increase trade and build trust among nations.
• The G20 Delhi Declaration addressed contentious issues like Ukraine and acknowledged the impact of conflicts on global economic distress.

PARTNERSHIP FOR GLOBAL INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT (PGII)

• The infrastructure plan was first announced in June 2021 during the G7 (or Group of Seven) summit in the UK.
• The G7 countries include the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, and the European Union (EU). US President Joe Biden had called it the Build Back Better World (B3W) framework. However, it did not register much progress.
• In 2022, during the G7 summit in Germany, the PGII was officially launched as a joint initiative to help fund infrastructure projects in developing countries through public and private investments.

CHINA’S BELT AND ROAD INITIATIVE (BRI):

• It was launched by China in 2013.
• The BRI consists of two main components:
  • The Silk Road Economic Belt, which is a land-based network connecting China to Europe through Central Asia and the Middle East, and
  • The 21st Century Maritime Silk Road, which is a sea-based network linking China to Southeast Asia, South Asia, Africa, and Europe via the South China Sea and the Indian Ocean.
• This initiative spans multiple continents, with projects in over 70 countries.
• India, however, opposed the BRI as it included the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, which connected Kashgar in China with the Gwadar port in Pakistan via Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.