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‘The India Middle East-Europe Corridor Europe's Indo-Pacific Strategy — The Diplomat
THE| DIPLOMAT
FEATURES | ECONOMY | SOUTH ASIA
The India-Middle
East-Europe
Corridor in
Europe's Indo-
Pacific Strategy
IMEC is a chance to
translate the many
declarations and diplomatic
initiatives undertaken by
the EU - including its focus
on India - into concrete
actions.
By Tiziano Marino
September 21, 2023
in-europes-indo-pacito-strategy! 189723723, 1:30PM ‘The India Middle East-Europe Corridor Europe's Indo-Pacific Strategy — The Diplomat
From left, Italian Prime Minister Giorgia
Meloni, President of the European Comission
Ursula von der Leyen, Saudi Arabian Crown
Prince Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud,
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and
USS. President Joe Biden attend the
Partnership for Global Infrastructure and
Investment event on the day of the G-20
summit in New Delhi, India, Sep. 9, 2023.
Credit: AP Photo/Evelyn Hockstein, Pool
The India-Middle East-Europe Economic
Corridor (IMEC), launched on September 9 at
the G-20 summit in New Delhi, holds the
potential to become one of the pillars of
Europe’s Indo-Pacific strategy, which appears to
be increasingly focused on India. The
Memorandum of Understanding on the corridor
signed by India, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi
Arabia, the United States, the European Union
(EU), and three of its major member states,
namely France, Germany, and Italy, is extremely
relevant not only for economic reasons but also,
and above all, for its strategic significance.
From a European perspective, the new corridor
seems to be in line with the new strategic
priorities for the Indo-Pacific region. IMEC looks
like a perfect initiative to translate the many
declarations and diplomatic initiatives
‘ntps:neciplomat.com/2023I08he-irdia-midale-east-surope-cordor-in-europesindo-pacife-tategy! 289723723, 1:30PM
‘The nda Mile Eas Europe Corrdorin Europe's Indo-Pacific Srategy ~The Diplomat
undertaken by the EU since 2021 into concrete
actions. Indeed, the corridor may, firstly,
complement the ambitious initiative known as
the Global Gateway, thus facilitating the
achievernent of some of the goals set for the
region, including connectivity and sustainable
and inclusive prosperity. Second, IMEC can be a
useful move to achieve what is known as “de-
risking,” or the gradual rebalancing of trade and
economic relations between EU and China.
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Notably, the redefinition of the European
strategy toward China has been underway for
some time, stimulated by the United States’ own
China policy and decisively accelerated by the
Russian invasion of Ukraine, which revealed all
the limits of economic interdependence
between actors guided by conflicting values and
visions. In this context, large-scale cooperation
with India and the United States, through the
Gulf, appears relevant for the EU because it has
the potential to facilitate the creation of
alternative and resilient supply chains and to
link together states with large production
capacity, advanced technologies, and capital to
invest.
The EU has been looking at India with interest
for some time and this MoU is only the last step
in a rather long journey. Brussels’ willingness to
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‘The nda Mile Eas Europe Corrdorin Europe's Indo-Pacific Srategy ~The Diplomat
engage with New Delhi emerged strongly
already in April 2022, when the president of the
European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen,
mentioned strengthening and enhancing the
EU-India partnership as a priority for the near
future in her speech at the Raisina Dialogue.
In parallel, key EU member states have also
accelerated the revitalization of relations with
India. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, for
instance, visited the country twice in 2023, in
February and against for the G-20 in September.
Scholz also met with Modi on the sidelines of
the G-7 summit in Japan, and in all these
circumstances, the two leaders emphasized
their willingness to strengthen bilateral
relations, increase trade and economic ties
(which are already excellent since Germany is
the top trading partner for India within the EU),
and increase cooperation in the defense field.
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This issue has also been at the center of recent
talks between French and Indian diplomats,
showing that key EU states want to play an
important role in the process of diversifying and
strengthening India’s domestic production in
the defense sector. Although Modi had already
traveled to France to meet with Macron in July
2023, on the 25th anniversary of the strategic
partnership, the two leaders decided to hold
another bilateral meeting on the sidelines of the
G-20, reflecting the priority they both give to the
development of Franco-Indian relations.
‘ntps:neciplomat.com/2023I08he-irdia-midale-east-surope-cordor-in-europesindo-pacife-tategy! 489723723, 1:30PM ‘The India Middle East-Europe Corridor Europe's Indo-Pacific Strategy — The Diplomat
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played by Itiuy. suite perceives une as ule
missing building block of its strategy for the
Indo-Pacific, which, although never formalized
ina specific document, has been under
development for some time now. The Italian
vision, indeed, aims to connect the
Mediterranean to the Indian and Pacific Oceans
through the Middle East, which must therefore
act as a bridge. IMEC, in addition to perfectly
espousing this perspective, offers Rome the
opportunity to capitalize on the multiplier
offered by the presence of the EU allies, to
enhance the maritime dimension vital to the
country, and to leverage the good relations
historically enjoyed with most Middle Eastern
actors.
In terms of timing, then, IMEC comes at a
decisive juncture for Italy, which appears
determined not to renew the MoU signed in
2019 with China on cooperation under the Belt
and Road Initiative. Rome thus needs to prepare
for possible countermeasures from Beijing.
Furthermore, the corridor serves the Italian
national interest as it presents an opportunity
for companies active in the maritime and
railway sectors, as well as energy and
telecommunications.
‘ntps:neciplomat.com/2023I08he-irdia-midale-east-surope-cordor-in-europesindo-pacife-tategy! 589723723, 1:30PM
‘The India Miele Eas- Europe Coder in Europe's Indo-Pacte Strategy The Diplomat
It was precisely the potential stimulus of energy
interconnectivity that was emphasized by
Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni during
the G-20. Meloni also symbolically retraced von,
der Leyen’s path by delivering a speech at the
Raisina Dialogue in 2023. Italy’s focus on energy
and South Asia also emerged from the country’s
adhesion to the Global Biofuel Alliance, which
includes India as well as Bangladesh, a country
from which Italy hosts an important diaspora
numbering around 150,000 people.
IMEC also includes the United Arab Emirates,
where Meloni made a two-day stopover on her
way back from India last March - a move that
suggests the involvement of respective
diplomats on the issue has been ongoing for
several months. The inclusion of the Gulf
countries allows, on the one hand, the
Europeans to strengthen geoeconomic relations
with the region and, on the other, India to revive
its Look West policy, which has become
increasingly relevant for the country.
Despite the initiative’s extraordinary potential,
its development by the EU requires overcoming
some pressing issues. The first concerns the
deep economic and trade imbalance between
EU-India and EU-China relations. Indeed,
looking at the data, the total volume of trade
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‘The India Miele Eas- Europe Coder in Europe's Indo-Pacte Strategy The Diplomat
between the EU and India, although growing
steadily since 2012, remains about eight times
smaller than EU trade with China, which
reached 856 billion euros in 2022. Moreover,
most of the EU and other actors involved in
IMEC, including India, import high-tech
products from China, so itis difficult to imagine
self-sufficiency in critical sectors for IMEC
actors in the short to medium term.
The different political priorities of the various
actors involved, with the United States and the
EU in particular grappling with the protracted
conflict in Ukraine, which does not seem likely
to end anytime soon, may also play a role in
slowing implementation. Finally, the IMEC
initiative comes at a time when a further
slowdown in the global economy, and thus also
in the EU, is expected. Notably, the German
economy, which has always been the engine of
European growth, stagnated in the second
quarter of 2023, after a 0.1 percent drop in real
GDP in the first quarter. Therefore, it seems
clear that only a strong political will can make it
possible to move beyond the difficulties
described and can foster the rapid development
of the European segment of IMEC.
AUTHORS
Guest auTHor
Tiziano Marino
Tiziano Marino is the head of the Asia-Pacific
analysis unit at CeSI (Centro Studi Internazionali)
in Rome, Italy.
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