Can Modi fast-track India-Mideast-Europe corridor post-reelection?

KARACHI — Having just been sworn in for a third term after elections earlier this month, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his government are working to get the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) going. Plans to operationalize the initial phase of the corridor between India and the United Arab Emirates are presently at the top of the agenda in New Delhi.

New Delhi seems intent on implementing the first leg of the project as soon as possible and has announced a "100-day deadline" to complete the task nearly nine months after the project was first announced in September 2023, when India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, Italy, France, Germany and the European Union launched the corridor during the G20 Summit in New Delhi. Consisting of two parts, the IMEC begins with transit by ship between India, the UAE and Saudi Arabia, connecting to Jordan via rail links, then onward to Turkey and Europe. 

At this year’s G7 summit that was held in Italy from June 13-15, the IMEC was highlighted by Modi and India's External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar, and a commitment to promote “concrete infrastructure initiatives such as the IMEC“ was included in the joint communique by all the participating nations at the end of the summit. 

India’s IMEC vision