G20 leads to groundbreaking India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor

While pointing towards the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEE-EC), US President Joe Biden on Sunday said a groundbreaking new partnership was formed at the G20 Summit in New Delhi.

President Biden further said that this new partnership is going to save money, increase the global South's capacity to grow and provide impetus to economic development

"The new partnership will connect India to Europe with the Middle East and Israel with transportation by rail and by shipment through energy supplies and digital connections that are going to open up untold opportunities for transformative economic investment on that entire corridor," the US President said during a press conference in Vietnam's Hanoi.

He said in India “We provided for a new path that's going to save everybody money, increase the global South's capacity to grow, we're going to have a new railroad from India all the way across to the Mediterranean.”

At the G20 Summit, India, the US, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to establish the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor. Biden called it a "game-changing" regional investment.

The corridor will encourage and provide impetus to economic development through enhanced connectivity and economic integration between Asia, West Asia, the Middle East and Europe, as per sources.

The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor will consist of two separate corridors, the East corridor connecting India to West Asia/Middle East and the Northern corridor connecting West Asia/Middle East to Europe.

It will include a rail line, which upon completion, will provide a reliable and cost-effective cross-border ship-to-rail transit network to supplement the existing multi-modal transport routes enhancing transhipment of goods and services between South East Asia through India to West Asia/Middle East Europe.

Biden said the new corridor will provide shipping lanes and pipelines across the Mediterranean through Europe, up into Great Britain and beyond.

“That's all about economic growth. There is nothing to do with hurting China or helping China. It has to do with dealing with everything from climate change to making sure that these countries can succeed economically and grow..." the US President said.

He further said: "... At the G 20, we made progress on issues like multilateral development, bank reform to get to those nations that are neither poor nor wealthy...”

He said the G20 Summit “also discussed Russia's brutal and illegal war in Ukraine... I want to once again thank Prime Minister Modi for his leadership and his hospitality in hosting a G20..."

Biden departed for Vietnam earlier on Sunday after attending the G20 Summit in New Delhi. During his Vietnam visit, the US President is due to meet Vietnamese General Secretary Nguyen Phu Trọng and other key leaders to discuss ways to further deepen cooperation between the two nations.

Biden said that the G20 Summit held in India proved that the group can still drive solutions to "most pressing issues." He noted that the global economy is suffering from overlapping shocks of the climate crisis.

On Friday, Indian PM Modi and US President Joe Biden held a bilateral meeting. During the meeting, India and the US settled the seventh and last outstanding World Trade Organisation (WTO) dispute.

US President Biden and PM Modi welcomed the completion of the notification process regarding negotiations for a commercial agreement between GE Aerospace and Hindustan Aeronautical Limited, the White House said in a statement.

The two leaders commended the progress in implementing the futuristic and wide-ranging outcomes of PM Modi's historic State visit to the US in June 2023, including under the India-U.S. Initiative for Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET).

The India-US joint statement further said that the leaders also welcomed the sustained momentum in bilateral cooperation in the areas of defence, trade, investment, education, health, research, innovation, culture and people-to-people ties.

The two leaders also reiterated the importance of nuclear energy as a necessary resource to meet the climate, energy transition, and energy security needs of both nations. They also reaffirmed their commitment to deepen and diversify the India-US defence partnership through expanded cooperation in new and emerging domains such as space and artificial intelligence, and accelerated defence industrial collaboration.

(ANI)