How Saudi Arabia is gateway to Bharat-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor

His Royal Highness Mohamed Bin Salman (MBS), Crown Prince and de facto ruler of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, (on behalf of his ailing and elderly father King Salman of the Royal House of Saud), has launched his State Visit to Bharat on the 11 September 2023. This is his second state visit since February 2019. This state visit has come immediately after MBS attended the very successful two-day ‘G21’ Summit, concluded on the 10th of this month. A number of new agreements are likely to be signed during the one-day bilateral meeting with Prime Minister Modi at Hyderabad House in the capital. Bharat and Saudi Arabia have also become strategic partners and will be signing the minutes of the first meeting of a strategic council formed for the purpose. Bharat is presently Saudi Arabia’s second largest trading partner but the potential to grow it in quantum and volume terms is considerable. MBS clearly sees this, and is putting his policy heft behind this endeavour alongside Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Agreements on defence, security, trade, services, labour, manufacturing, supply chains, energy, including alternate and renewable energy, agriculture, food security, digital technology, Artificial Intelligence (AI), two-way investment programmes, cooperation in space, are some of the areas that will be covered. Of course, the big new development at the ‘G21’ Summit is the massive infrastructure project announced. It was one of the biggest, important and immediately tangible announcements at the Summit. An integrated road, rail, port, ship, sea and digitally connected corridor leading from Bharat through West Asia overland as well as land/sea to Europe, will be commenced within 60 days by all the countries concerned. It will also link the regions it passes through with electricity connectivity and incorporate green Hydrogen pipelines. It is inclusive of, and will involve, most of the countries in the West Asian and Mediterranean region including the UAE, Oman, Jordan, Israel, Cyprus, Greece, and then on to Europe by land, as well as via Port Haifa in Israel and Port Piraeus in Greece. It is a massive project involving trillions of dollars in investment, expected to come from in-country resources, multilateral sources such as the World Bank and IMF, some private investment, all underwritten by the US, which is also a member of the I2U2 strategic initiative. It is likely to earn huge resources as well when completed. It has the potential of speeding goods movements from Bharat to Europe by as much as 40 per cent, saving both time and money. This new set of integrated routes will be an alternative to the overburdened and out-of-date Suez Canal. Saudi Arabia was drifting away from the US after the controversies and criticisms raised against MBS by America after the grisly murder of dissident Saudi journalist Khashoggi in Turkiye. So much so, that Saudi Arabia drew closer to China that even brokered a rapprochement between Iran and Saudi Arabia. Riyadh also did Yuan trades with Beijing for its petroleum exports to the dragon. President Biden therefore looked visibly pleased at the ‘G21’ Summit with Bharat’s initiative of this new Corridor that drew Saudi Arabia, an old ally, back into the US sphere of influence. The new and momentous announcement threatens the Chinese debt-trap creating Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), and its recent growing influence in West Asia that even sought to mediate in Saudi Arabia’s war with the Houthi rebels in Yemen. Soon after the announcement of this new corridor, G7 member Italy announced its withdrawal from China’s BRI via its Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, very much present at the ‘G21’ Summit. From the Bharatiya perspective, the straws have been in the wind for some time. Adani is already redeveloping Haifa Port in Israel. Haifa is famous from WWI as the place liberated by Bharatiya troops working in the British Empire Army. Those brave mounted soldiers are immortalised in a sculpture facing Teen Murti Bhavan in New Delhi, which was once the residence of the British Indian Army Chief. Recently Prime Minister Narendra Modi made a visit to Athens, Greece, on his way home from Johannesburg where he had gone to attend the BRICS Summit. Greece was last visited by Bharatiya Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, way back, in 1983. Piraeus Port development in Greece is also on Adani’s radar. Greece is keen on becoming Bharat’s gateway to Europe as expressed by Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and President Karerina Sakellaropoulou during Modi’s day-long recent visit. The Adani Group has been foremost in modern port development and green infrastructure projects in Bharat, and even coal-mining in Australia. It has been active throughout the last ten years, and even earlier, starting with the highly modern Kandla container handling port and terminus in Gujarat. Indian Railways has reformed and revived its abilities and could well play a stellar part in the new West-Asian portion of the corridor. India’s Reliance Industries, one of the world’s biggest petroleum refiners, is an early mover in the area of Hydrogen production and its application in transport amongst other things. Officially called the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), it is being hailed as a modern-day Spice Route. It is expected to stimulate economic development throughout the Eurasian corridor. In the European section, participants include France, Germany, Italy, the US and the EU. The MoU drafted at the New Delhi ‘G21’ has been signed by India, USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany, Italy and the European Union. In an initiative that will enthuse the 55 nation African Union, newly a part of the ‘G21’, the United States will simultaneously invest in a rail line from Angola in Central Africa, to the Indian Ocean. China, that absented itself from the New Delhi Summit, is not only stymied diplomatically by these initiatives, it really does not have the money anymore to see its BRI dreams through as the sole financier. The 146 signatories to the BRI will, no doubt, begin to abandon it, following Italy’s example. Saudi Arabia will play a pivotal role in the West Asian section of the corridor along with the UAE, Israel and Bharat. But through his back-to-back state visits, MBS who’s stopped in New Delhi since 8 September, seeks to expand the strategic partnership with Bharat into multiple avenues. The endeavour is to take it far beyond being one of the world’s biggest petroleum producers. Bharat, on its way to becoming the third biggest economy in the world with a projected GDP of over $10 trillion, is equally keen on the win-win development. The writer is a Delhi-based political commentator. Views expressed in the above piece are personal and solely that of the author. They do not necessarily reflect Firstpost_’s views._ Read all the  Latest News ,  Trending News ,  Cricket News ,  Bollywood News , India News  and  Entertainment News  here. Follow us on  Facebook,  Twitter and  Instagram.