00:01the india middle east europe economic corridor or imec has received a fresh push and this time
00:08from u.s president donald trump president trump said his administration strongly supports imec
00:15he's argued that this ongoing west asia war and the attacks on commercial shipping both at babal
00:22mandab and at the state of humus they very clearly underline the need to shift critical energy
00:28infrastructure away from the roots that are vulnerable to iranian pressure so what exactly
00:35is the imec the india middle east europe economic corridor was proposed as a multimodal network
00:44connecting india west asia europe ultimately with the united states of america and it's not just
00:53a one mode of transportation so from india to the united arab emirates it's by sea then by road and
01:03both there there you see the map on your television screen so it's a railway project it's a road
01:10project it's a pipeline project it's an undersea cable project the project combines sea routes
01:15railway sports road connectivity electricity infrastructure clean hydrogen and digital cables
01:22imec was actually conceptualized and unveiled during india's presidency of the g20 in new delhi in september
01:312023 the mou was signed by india the united states of america saudi arabia the united arab emirates the
01:41european union france germany and italy the corridor has two broad components an eastern corridor the
01:50eastern corridor connects india with the arabian gulf and then you have the north corridor or the
01:57northern corridor that connects gulf countries to europe through the haifa port in israel goods can move
02:06by sea from india to the united arab emirates and then shift to the proposed rail and land-based networks
02:13across west asia before moving by sea from the haifa port across the mediterranean sea towards europe
02:24the strategic significance of imec when you look at that map on your television screen it's very
02:30interesting and it becomes all the more interesting today the trade of humus is under severe pressure
02:36amidst the iran-us war energy flows commercial shipping the movement of fertilizers so both
02:44food security and fuel security gas petrol diesel oil all of that severely disrupted the crisis has once
02:53again exposed the vulnerability of global trade when critical roots and choke points come under pressure
02:59imec is therefore being looked at as a way to diversify trade routes and reduce dependence you can't end
03:06it look at the volumes that that the sea route takes so it can reduce dependence on a single continuous
03:14maritime pathway but there is a caveat imec will take time to become completely operational west asia
03:23so in 2026 it is increasingly being discussed as a potential tool for diversification and
03:53strategic resilience what could imec mean for india's trade and strategic connectivity both with west
04:00east asia and of course with europe
04:03you
