Countries Establish India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor to Counter China’s ‘Belt and Road’

Last week’s G20 summit announced establishing the 'India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor' to counter China's BRI.

Last week’s G20 summit announced the establishment of the “India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor” (IMEC), which was signed by India, the United States, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy, Saudi Arabia, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE).

According to the project documents, the IMEC is envisioned to consist of two separate corridors: an eastern corridor connecting India and the Arabian Gulf, and a northern corridor connecting the Arabian Gulf and Europe. It’s viewed as an alternative to counter China's "One Belt, One Road" initiative (BRI), which has been criticized for setting a debt trap for and exerting the Chinese communist regime’s political influence on participating countries and is dwindling due to China’s economic decline.

The IMEC's goal is to establish a "reliable and cost-effective" cross-border ship-rail network to enable cargo transshipment between India, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe. The partner countries intend to lay electricity cables and digital cables along the railway line, as well as clean hydrogen pipelines, as announced.

The United States has played a leading role in the negotiations of establishing the IMEC to counter China’s BRI, which has seen mounting debt hurt the economies of participating countries. The launch of the new economic corridor also marks Washington's return to the Middle East.

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European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said the IMEC “is nothing less than historic. It will be the most direct connection to date between India, the Arabian Gulf, and Europe: with a rail link that will make trade between India and Europe 40% faster.”

The corridor puts India at the center of trade flows from Southeast Asia to the Middle East and Europe, which is a huge opportunity for India and the Middle East to accelerate economic development, and for Europe to diversify key supply chains away from China.

The project started with several secret meetings between India, the UAE, and the United States, with the full support of the Saudi Crown Prince, and was later joined by Italy, Germany, and France.

Saudi Arabia, the UAE, and Italy have joined China’s BRI in previous years, and are now three founding members of the IMEC, while Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni is seeking to withdraw from the BRI.

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Although the BRI—Chinese communist regime leader Xi Jinping’s grand international project announced 10 years ago—was marketed by China as being just focused on economics, over time, member nations increasingly realized it was a tool being used by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) to reshape the world order, win over countries in the Global South, and export the CCP’s governance model.

Zhong Zhidong, an assistant researcher at the National Defense Strategy and Resources Institute of the Taiwan Institute of National Defense and Security, told The Epoch Times, "The BRI brings all aspects of manpower, resources, and equipment from China instead of using local ones, but takes local funding for its development. It’s a form of economic exploitation [of host nations and their people]."

American economist Davy Wong said that IMEC is composed of countries with European and American influence at their core, while the "One Belt and One Road" is the other way around, consisting of countries with relatively high political influence from Beijing. They are two different economic and political groups.

"IMEC is more about the economic aspect, such as railway transportation, some tariff exemptions, etc. The BRI is more about direct project investment, such as digging mines and building some public facilities such as railways, docks, and airports, schools, hospitals, etc., and more direct investment in infrastructure construction,” Mr. Wong said.

“IMEC factors in that geopolitics and shared values and the legal system will take precedence over economic interests; the BRI is more about agreeing with Beijing’s political orientation. The BRI is Beijing’s export of its excess production capacity and capital to the world, as well as its influence in all aspects of diplomatic relations. So the BRI is more about the rise of Beijing’s influence; it wants to change the rules of the world,” he said, comparing the two.

Song Guocheng, a researcher at the International Relations Research Center of National Chengchi University, told The Epoch Times that the BRI has basically arrived at its death and is unable to continue. In terms of China’s investment in it, it has gone from a peak of more than 20 billion to less than 7 billion now.

"There are two main reasons," Mr. Song told The Epoch Times. "One is that the ability of these recipient countries to repay their debts is relatively low. Because the CCP mainly wants to develop its own geopolitical influence, they invested in these countries. The other is that China’s current sluggish economy can no longer afford it.”