Israel : A Key link to India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor

Relevance: GS-2: Bilateral, regional and global groupings and agreements involving India and/or affecting India’s interests; Effect of policies and politics of developed and developing countries on India’s interestss

(Source: The Hindu, 09/25/2023)

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Why in the News?

• India has hosted the G-20 leaders summit recently in September 2023 at New Delhi.
• As a host, India invited nine non-member countries — Bangladesh, Egypt, Mauritius, Netherlands, Nigeria, Oman, Singapore, Spain and the United Arab Emirates — to the summit.
• Out of many outcomes of the summit, India-Middle East- Europe Economic Corridor (IMEE - EC) is one of the key outcomes.
• As located on the key location of such a corridor and not invited by India as a guest country, Israel could be a great concern in operationalisation of such a visionary idea.

What is India-Middle East- Europe Economic Corridor?

• It aims to create a comprehensive transportation network, comprising rail, road, and sea routes, connecting India, the Middle East, and Europe.
• The proposed IMEC will consist of Railroad, Ship-to-Rail networks and Road transport routes extending across two corridors, that is,
• The East Corridor – connecting India to the Arabian Gulf,
• The Northern Corridor – connecting the Gulf to Europe.
• The corridor, which would include India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Jordan, Israel and the European Union, also delivers energy resources, provides digital connectivity and improves transportation.
• Ports and Railways to be Connected:
  • India: Mundra (Gujarat), Kandla (Gujarat), and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust (Navi Mumbai).
  • Middle East: Fujairah, Jebel Ali, and Abu Dhabi in the UAE as well as Dammam and Ras Al Khair ports in Saudi Arabia.
  • Railway line will connect Fujairah port (UAE) to Haifa port (Israel) via: Saudi Arabia (Ghuwaifat and Haradh) and Jordan.
  • Israel: Haifa port.
  • Europe: Piraeus port in Greece, Messina in South Italy, and Marseille in France.
  • Know more about IMEE - EC: https://prepp.in/news/e-492-india-middle-east-europe-corridor-the-way-to-a-new-world-order-upsc-current-affairs

Why is Israel the key concern to the proposed project?

• The Arab–Israeli conflict is an ongoing intercommunal phenomenon involving political tension, military conflicts, and other disputes between various Arab countries and Israel, which escalated during the 20th century.
• Since the disputed area is considered to be a Holy Land by Jews, Christians and Muslims, the conflict has attracted a great deal of interest.
• So far israel has fought following wars with arab countries;
  • 1948 War of Independence
  • 1967 Six Day War
  • 1973 Yom Kippur War
  • 1982 Lebanon War
  • 2006 Second Lebanon War
• Apart from this, in recent times there are ongoing issues such as Palestine issue, Gaza strip conflicts, Hamas militant issues, Jerusalem issue etc which are interwoven with each other and largely creates a line of conflict with Arab countries.
• Due to the above reasons when it comes to coworking on the India-Middle East- Europe Economic Corridor along with Arab countries, it may become challenging to overcome such issues.

Positive factors that can help to overcome this issue

• Currently, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Saudi Arabia, in partnership with the Arab League and the European Union, has joined forces with Egypt and Jordan to launch a ‘Peace Day Effort’ aimed at incentivising Israelis and Palestinian leaders to compromise.
• The Abraham Accords
  • The agreement between the United States (US), the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and Israel, which was signed in September 2020 will be completed in 3 years in September 2023.
  • The Accords were later extended to the countries of Sudan, Bahrain and Morocco and marked the first normalisation of ties between Israel and Arab countries.
  • The accord has successfully shown galloping steps in straightening the relation by working on the aspects of trade, tourism, education, culture etc.
  • Successful establishment of the I2U2 Group (also known as West Asian Quad), formed by Israel, India, the UAE, and the U.S. and its primary focus will be on joint investments in critical areas such as water, energy, transportation, space, health, and food security.

Other Challenges to IMEE - EC

• Planning and coordination on such a large scale will be the key challenge.
• Developing a multimodal transport corridor involving rail, road, and sea routes spanning multiple countries requires complex logistical planning and coordination among stakeholders.
• To raise finance for such massive plan will be the point of concern. Initial estimates suggest that developing each of these IMEC routes could cost anywhere between USD 3 billion to USD 8 billion.
• As the plan is to promote Green energy over the corridor, preparedness of other countries will become a major gap
• Geopolitical issues between multiple countries could be a major roadblock

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FAQ

MCQ

Question: Consider the following statements.

1. Recently the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor has been launched at G-20 and is accepted by major countries such as the US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, the EU, Italy, France, and Germany.
2. It is a part of PGII, which was launched at the previous G-20 summit.

Which of the above statements is/are correct.

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 & 2

(d) Neither 1 & 2