A possible response to Beijing’s new “Silk Roads”? The United States pushed, on the occasion of the G20, for an ambitious logistics “corridor” project linking India and Europe to the Middle East, with a leading role for Saudi Arabia
An agreement in principle was signed on Saturday in New Delhi between the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, France, Germany, and Italy, according to a press release released by the White House.
“It’s really important”: commenting on this signing, the American president spoke of a “historic” agreement during a round table bringing together the leaders concerned.
It is “much more than ‘just’ rail or cable”, underlined the President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, referring to “a green and digital bridge between continents and civilizations”.
At the end of the meeting, Joe Biden approached Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, host of the G20 summit, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for a collective handshake.
Biden and “MBS”
A little over a year ago, the 80-year-old Democrat sparked intense controversy during a trip to Saudi Arabia, when he greeted Mohammed bin Salman with a “check”, whom the United States stand for as the instigator of the assassination of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.
But water has flowed under the bridge, and Washington is now redoubling its efforts to strengthen ties with the oil monarchy, in the name of its strategic interests.
We want to launch a new era connected via a rail network, linking ports in Europe, the Middle East, and Asia,” according to a document released by the Biden administration about the big “corridor” announcement between India and Europe. The objective is to create “commercial nodes”, while “encouraging the development and export of clean energy”.
It will also involve laying submarine cables.
From a source close to the matter, the project also provides for a hydrogen corridor that would notably connect Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and Jeddah, in Saudi Arabia, with the Israeli port of Haifa and then to European ports. France hopes that Marseille can be the European “bridgehead” of the construction site, President Emmanuel Macron praising the “expertise” of French companies in terms of transport and energy.
The project must also “advance integration in the Middle East”, including between “unlikely partners”, commented the National Security adviser of the White House, Jake Sullivan, who mentioned Israel and Jordan among the countries concerned.
Joe Biden, keen to leave his diplomatic mark in the region, is trying to convince Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize their relations.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the United States approached Israel several months ago about the project, which he said would “reshape the face of the Middle East.”
“The State of Israel will be a hub for this economic initiative,” he said in a statement on Saturday evening.
“Israel will bring all its capabilities, all its experience, and its full commitment to make this collaborative project the largest in our history,” he added.
The agreement on the major infrastructure project, the timetable of which remains unclear, “is not specifically a harbinger of normalization”, however, clarified Jake Sullivan.
With this announcement, the American president is trying to fill the space vacated by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who like his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was not in New Delhi for the G20.
Africa
The United States and Europe have also announced that they are joining forces to support another infrastructure project in Africa: the “Lobito corridor”, linking the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia via the port of Lobito. in Angola.
If the project aiming to connect India to Europe via various countries in the Middle East were really “realized, it would change the rules of the game”, judged in a message on X (ex-Twitter) Michael Kugelman, an expert at the Wilson Center in Washington, and this would “aim to counter the BRI”.
The “Belt and Road Initiative” is the acronym in English for the so-called “new Silk Roads” program through which Beijing is making massive investments in a number of developing countries to build infrastructure.
Its opponents denounce a Chinese Trojan horse, intended to obtain political influence and criticize the debt it imposes on poor countries.
Joe Biden called it a “debt and confiscation program” in June.
“In this idea (of a new logistics corridor), there is competition with the ‘Silk Roads'”, confirmed a French diplomatic source, for whom Delhi’s announcement is “just the beginning of a long story” .
For Paris, it would be necessary in particular, in the long term, “to see how Egypt enters the Round Table”.
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