Editorial: Boost for India’s image
G7’s commitment to promote India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor is a major diplomatic victory
The biggest takeaway from the just-concluded G7 summit in Italy has been the endorsement of India’s growing stature and influence in global affairs. The commitment made by the G7 group of rich nations to promote infrastructure initiatives such as the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) comes as a major diplomatic victory for India. This ambitious project, envisaging a vast road, railroad and shipping network connecting Asia with the West, is seen as a counter to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI). Though the IMEC’s progress has been hindered by the ongoing turbulence in West Asia, the endorsement at the G7 summit would undoubtedly serve as a big booster. New Delhi has managed to convince the G7 member nations — United States, UK, Canada, Germany, Italy, Japan and France — to push through the IMEC for supplying infrastructure materials to boost the economy of the region. Billed as a path-breaking initiative, the IMEC envisages a vast infrastructure network among Saudi Arabia, India, the United States and Europe to ensure integration among Asia, the Middle East and the West. The IMEC initiative, firmed up on the side-lines of the G20 summit hosted by India last year, is not just an effective counter to the BRI that runs from China to Dubai through Pakistan, Pak Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Iran but also marks a bold move to chart a new course in the changing world.
The West sees the Silk Route as a dangerous pipeline as it passes through two countries Iran and Pakistan that support terrorist outfits. It is common knowledge that the Islamic clergy-run Iran supports militant outfits such as Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Libya and the Houthis in Jordan while Pakistan is known to be training and retrofitting militant outfits such as JeM and LeT in PoK where they have camps to train the insurgents and send them across the border to foment trouble in Kashmir. The IMEC corridor signals several new geopolitical trends. The key among them is that it breaks Pakistan’s veto over India’s overland connectivity to the West. Since the 1990s, New Delhi has sought various trans-regional connectivity projects with Pakistan. But Islamabad was adamant in its refusal to let India gain access to land-locked Afghanistan and Central Asia. There are multiple advantages to this ambitious initiative. It would increase prosperity among the countries involved through an increased flow of energy and digital communications. It will deepen India’s strategic engagement with the Arabian peninsula. There is also an expectation in the western world that this project can bring down the political temperature in the Arabian peninsula by promoting intra-regional connectivity. Representing India at the G7 summit as an ’outreach country’, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke about how India had assumed responsibility for G20 presidency last year for highlighting the priorities and concerns of developing countries on the world stage.
