The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC): Courting the BRI.

The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is a new plan of the USA and its allies, which was announced in the G20 leaders summit. The project was launched to stop the Chinese rise in the region.

If the project is completed, it will ultimately harm China's Belt and Road Initiatives. The BRI is a massive project of China which has been interlinked with at least three continents. The IMEC is a transitional rail and shipping route spread across two continents, which is a product of the USA and India and will play the role of mediator.

The USA expects that launching this project will energize economic development through connectivity and economic integration between Asia, Europe and the Arabian Gulf. US President Joe Biden, in his visit to Vietnam, told a reporter that the USA did not need to contain China and wanted to see her succeed, but this diplomatic narrative always heartened China.

According to an article in the Chinese press, there is no industrial manufacturing bloc that can compete with BRI, and there needs to be a clear policy for human capital, labour policy, government system and efficiency. The USA can not afford as long-term a project as China can afford its BRI. Both significant players are trying to counter each other. Let's see what will happen in future.

In his speech to the G20 summit, Indian PM Narendra Modi said that IMEC is not necessarily replacing China's BRI and that they had good terms with China. But both countries are playing a dual game with China.

The new trade route is a good omen for the USA and Saudi Arabia because they want to expand their trade with the European Union, Italy, Germany and France. This corridor has two separate routes: the East corridor, which links India to the Gulf Arab states and the Northern route, which connects Europe to the Gulf States.

Mohammad Baharoon, the Director General of Dubai Public Policy Research centre, in a TV interview, articulated that It is not a project of competition with China's BRI but an attempt to facilitate the movement of goods (including energy), data, money and develop people-to-people connections.

The recent summit brought many ideas for the participants to empower the Gulf states and Europe. Many scholars believe that Biden's main agenda under this initiative is to defeat China in Europe and the Gulf. Mr Modi, during his speech at the summit, said that this milestone will make the trade between India and Europe 40 percent faster with a rail link...