Apr 23, 2026 16:30 pm IST

Opinion | India Is Losing A Multibillion-Dollar 'Asset', Thanks To Trump

At a grand ceremony in Delhi in 2023, India unveiled its most ambitious trade corridor. Halfway across the world, forces beyond its control are now derailing that vision.

Aditi Bhaduri Aditi Bhaduri Columnist

Aditi Bhaduri Columnist

Recently, Turkey's transportation minister, Abdulkadir Uraloglu, announced that his country, and Syria and Jordan, have together agreed to modernise their railway systems in order to eventually create a contiguous corridor between southern Europe and the Persian Gulf. The network would take approximately four to five years to build, and billions of dollars in investment, primarily because of the devastated Syrian infrastructure. The railway network reconstruction in Syria alone needs at least $5.5 billion. Thereafter, it would be extended to connect with the rail system in Saudi Arabia. This would eventually create a North-South Gulf-Europe trade corridor between Europe, the Levant and the Gulf.

Such a corridor would revive the old Ottoman-era route connecting Damascus in Syria to Medina in present-day Saudi Arabia, through Jordan. It would also reopen more modern routes that Turkey had used through Syria to connect to Jordan, Lebanon and the Gulf before the Syrian civil war began in 2011.

Such a corridor makes sound sense as it would be the shortest and most cost-effective route for transportation of goods and services between the countries involved. But, at the same time, it would signal a setback to India's connectivity ambitions in the Middle East and Europe in an era of disruption of traditional trade routes.

The Vision Behind IMEC

In September 2023, the ambitious India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, known variously as IMEC or IMEEC, was unveiled during the Delhi G20 meet by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman and the then US President, Joe Biden. The multimodal route (see map below) was to start from Mumbai in India and would connect by sea to the UAE. From there, it would continue through a network of........

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