Middle East crisis could pose an obstacle to India-Middle East-Europe corridor: MEA official
The ongoing crisis in the Middle East could pose an obstacle to the completion of the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), which was announced on the sidelines of the G20 summit hosted by India in 2023, according to a senior official in the Ministry of External Affairs.
'It's not like we have gone back to square one, but I think the crisis in the Middle East could become a problem or obstacle for the IMEC,' Dammu Ravi, Secretary, Economic Relations, in the Ministry of External Affairs said while speaking at a conference on IMEC hosted by the Chintan Research Foundation on Wednesday (June 4, 2025).
IMEC is a proposed corridor spanning ship, ship-rail, and road networks to connect India to the Gulf region and the Gulf region to Europe.
Mr. Ravi acknowledged that any mega project of this magnitude would face challenges, but added that the two main issues are going to be competition from other similar projects such as the China-led Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and the homogenisation of systems across the partner countries.
'In my view, the biggest challenge that could come in the way, apart from geopolitical issues and conflicts, is harmonisation,' he said. 'The ability to harmonise across platforms, across countries, is important. Harmonisation in terms of regulatory standards, both your technical and phytosanitary regulations, your transportation networks, taxation systems. That will take work.'
Mr. Ravi also called for the setting up of a Secretariat or headquarters for the IMEC, which could act as a coordinating mechanism, 'without which a very good idea will disappear in no time'.
Speaking at the same conference, Vice Admiral Anil Chawla (Retd.), a Distinguished Fellow at the Council for Strategic and Defence Research (CSDR) pointed out that the IMEC would reduce the transit time of cargo from Mumbai to Piraeus in Greece by around three days.
However, he added that this is likely to be offset by customs clearances and regulatory processes at the transit points in Mumbai, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Greece.
An increase in efficiency from IMEC, he said in a presentation, was not 'readily apparent'.'IMEC's advantage is that it would bypass the existing chokepoints of the Straits of Bab el Mandeb and the Suez Canal,' Mr. Chawla said. 'However, there is an increased risk of choke points over land as rail lines can be easily sabotaged by non-state actors in the region.'
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