It is intended to be an answer to China’s “New Silk Road”: The EU, the USA, India, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates agreed on a gigantic joint infrastructure project during the G20 summit.
A huge infrastructure project is intended to better connect the USA, Europe, the Middle East and India.
US President Joe Biden said during the G20 summit in New Delhi that the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union had agreed on a memorandum of understanding for a joint rail and shipping project.
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen spoke of the most direct connection to date between India, the Persian Gulf and Europe.
“Accelerate trade by 40 percent”
EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen called the agreement “historic”. She spoke of the most direct connection yet between India, the Persian Gulf and Europe. The rail connection between India and Europe will speed up trade by 40 percent.
US President Joe Biden also spoke of a “historic economic corridor”. The project is intended to promote growth in several critical regions of the world, said Biden advisor Jake Sullivan. Integration across the entire Middle East should also be improved – involving “some unlikely partners” in the region.
The plan is to create a “sustainable, high-standard infrastructure” that will close a global gap and enable greater prosperity and better connectivity to key regions around the world. According to the White House, the project represents a great opportunity for the Middle East to play a key role in global trade, digital communications and energy.
Expansion of data and Energy infrastructure
Part of the project also includes the expansion of power grids, energy projects and high-speed data cables. With power cables and a pipeline for clean hydrogen, trade in clean energy between Asia, the Middle East and Europe is also to be strengthened.
According to US information, pipelines from Israel will, among other things, deliver clean hydrogen to Europe. Sullivan said it was “significant that Israel is part of this vision.” But he emphasized that this was not a precursor to normalizing the relationship between Israel and Saudi Arabia.
Competition to China’s “New Silk Road”
The project is to be financed, among other things, through the EU Global Gateway initiative. This is expected to invest up to 300 billion euros in the infrastructure of emerging and developing countries over the next few years. The initiative competes with China’s infrastructure initiative called the “New Silk Road”, which the People’s Republic has been working on in many countries for years.
The now announced project is also seen as a response to China’s “New Silk Road”. The news portal “Axios” had reported that it was an initiative by Washington whose purpose was to curb China’s influence in the Middle East.
With the “New Silk Road”, China is supporting infrastructure projects worldwide and wants to open up new trade routes to Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia. It has concluded numerous agreements with almost all Arab states.