Plans afoot for connectivity from Mediterranean to India via Gulf

Plans are afoot for connectivity from the Mediterranean to India via the Gulf. The plans involve countries like Greece, Cyprus, Egypt, UAE, Saudi Arabia and India.

The foreign ministers of India, Israeli, Egyptian, Cyprus, Greece and others are expected to meet in Dubai at the 12th edition of the Sir Bani Yas Forum to further discuss the plan.

The forum will meet from 12th to 14th November.

WION has learnt that the project focuses on building a corridor that connects India to the Gulf and West Asia to the Eastern Mediterranean, which will link the region to Europe and be a game-changer.

The foreign ministers' face-to-face meeting is expected to eliminate the roadblocks in thisconnectivity project, which currently is in the preliminary stages.

It is important to understand that three key countries in West Asia; Saudi Arabia, Israel and UAE who will also be a part of the discussion of the project, already have a close relationship with New Delhi.

Several trilateral projects are also underway between India, Israel, and the United Arab Emirates.

The Abraham Accords of 2020, saw the normalisation of ties between Israel and UAE and since then both sides have increased engagements with each other including the presence of the Israel pavilion at the ongoing Dubai Expo.

India has been taking a lead in several connectivity initiatives, from the Chabahar port project in Iran that links it to Central Asia and beyond; to the Kaladan Multimodal project in the east that connects it to ASEAN countries.

Chabahar is also key to the International north-south transport corridor connecting Mumbai to Moscow.