“Cotton Road”: New Corridor Between EU And India

During the recent G20 meeting in New Delhi, a hypothesis was proposed about a new connection between Europe, the Arabian Peninsula, and India.

This line of naval and rail routes, power lines, optical fiber, and hydrogen pipelines will be called the India – Middle East – Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). It is the Cotton Road that will join the New Silk Road, creating both a physical and an “ideological” exchange alternative, with the “blessing” of the United States.

For Europe, this would be a new route of communication with the East, as an alternative to the one that passes through Central Asia. Its purpose is not only to limit the importance of a similar Chinese initiative, but also to increase trade between the EU and India, the scale of which, according to the Italian economic newspaper Il Sole 24 Ore, has grown by 30% over the past 10 years and has surpassed the ceiling of 115 billion euros in 2022. There are two main routes: the railway crossing the Arabian Peninsula (UAE, Saudi Arabia, Israel, Jordan) and the sea corridor between the Persian Gulf and India. This creates a sea – rail – sea transport system that bypasses the Suez Canal, with corresponding savings in monetary terms.

India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and the European Union, as well as separately France, Germany, and Italy, signed a memorandum in this regard during the G20 meeting in New Delhi. The Free Trade Agreement (FTA), which is being discussed by the Old Continent and India, is also in the background.

According to European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, the Cotton Road will reduce the time it takes to transport goods between India and the Middle East by 40%.