IMEC Core of US-Greece-Cyprus-Israel Vow; Frames 3+1 Russia Sanctions Push
Athens: The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) took centre stage at the 3+1 Energy Ministerial today, where ministers from the United States, Greece, Cyprus, and Israel issued a joint statement reaffirming their shared commitment to promoting energy security and cooperation in the Eastern Mediterranean, including through the Eastern Mediterranean Energy Centre, as key to regional strategic stability and resilience. The ministers explicitly situated broader regional interconnectivity projects—both those currently in progress and future ones—within the context of IMEC, particularly its energy dimension, alongside commitments to energy development and cooperation on energy infrastructure protection.
U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright, co-chair of the National Energy Dominance Council with Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, joined Greek Minister of Environment and Energy Stavros Papastavrou, Cypriot Minister of Energy, Commerce and Industry George Papanastasiou, and Israeli Minister of Energy and Infrastructure Eli Cohen in the high-level talks. The ministers, along with the council’s co-chairs, declared their dedication to advancing energy security across the Eastern Mediterranean through the Eastern Mediterranean Energy Centre—a U.S.-supported platform for research, workforce training, and innovation in offshore hydrocarbons and renewables—as a foundational element for regional strategic stability and long-term resilience.
IMEC, launched on September 9, 2023, during India’s G20 presidency in New Delhi via a Memorandum of Understanding signed by India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, Italy, and the European Union (EU), served as the contextual architecture for these commitments. Spanning approximately 4,800 kilometers, IMEC features an Eastern Corridor linking Indian ports such as Mundra in Gujarat and Nhava Sheva near Mumbai through maritime routes to Gulf hubs including Jebel Ali in Dubai and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia, and a Northern Corridor transitioning to rail and ship-to-rail networks via Jordanian transit points, Israeli logistics centers like Haifa, and Greek ports such as Piraeus before reaching European terminals in Trieste, Italy. The corridor’s three interconnected pillars—transportation for efficient freight movement, energy for pipelines carrying clean hydrogen, natural gas, and electricity through subsea interconnections, and digital for high-bandwidth fiber-optic cables supporting real-time data analytics and intelligent supply chain management—aim to reduce shipping transit times by up to 40 percent and logistics costs by as much as 30 percent compared to the Suez Canal route, while generating over 10 million jobs, boosting annual trade by $1 trillion, and lowering carbon emissions through streamlined, renewable-integrated pathways.
In stark contrast to China’s Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), which has invested over $1 trillion across more than 150 countries since 2013—often resulting in opaque financing, debt traps, and sovereignty compromises in nations like Sri Lanka, Pakistan, and Laos—IMEC prioritises transparent, rules-based, and debt-sustainable partnerships aligned with the U.S.-led Partnership for Global Infrastructure and Investment (PGII). It avoids predatory lending, emphasises local capacity building, and mandates rigorous environmental and social governance, positioning India as a leader in equitable global connectivity rather than a creditor imposing control.
IMEC’s timeline reflects deliberate acceleration amid global disruptions. Conceptual discussions began in 2021 within U.S.-India Quad dialogues, culminating in the 2023 MoU. By February 2024, initial feasibility studies for rail extensions from UAE ports to Jordan were underway, with EU-India commitments in April 2024 allocating €500 million for digital backbone development. The October 2023 Gaza conflict and subsequent Houthi attacks in the Red Sea, which diverted 20 per cent of global container traffic by mid-2024, underscored IMEC’s strategic bypass value, prompting expedited assessments. In February 2025, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen’s visit to New Delhi secured pledges for “concrete implementation measures,” including a €2 billion blended finance facility combining grants, concessional loans, and private capital. Prime Minister Narendra Modi and French President Emmanuel Macron reaffirmed the roadmap on February 13, 2025, targeting pilot shipments on the Eastern Corridor by late 2027, full Northern rail operationalisation by 2030, and a permanent coordinating secretariat by 2026 under U.S. G20 leadership. A U.S.-orchestrated high-level summit in late November 2025, led by South Asia advisor Ricky Gill, will finalise governance protocols, risk-sharing mechanisms, and membership expansion criteria.
Environmental stewardship permeated the Athens agenda, amplifying IMEC’s green credentials. Ministers spotlighted a planned 2,000-kilometre hydrogen pipeline network capable of delivering 5 million tons of green ammonia annually—produced via solar-powered electrolysis in Saudi and Emirati deserts—potentially offsetting 10 per cent of Europe’s fossil gas imports by 2032 while complying with EU sustainable finance taxonomy. Greece, already generating twice its electricity demand from wind and solar, is investing in large-scale battery storage and smart grids to stabilise IMEC flows, with highway murals depicting vast solar arrays and tree-planting drives under initiatives mirroring “Salute to Mother Earth” committing to carbon-neutral construction by 2035. The Eastern Mediterranean Energy Centre will deploy methane detection satellites and marine protected zones around subsea cables, ensuring adherence to the Paris Agreement’s 1.5°C trajectory—features absent in many BRI coal-fired projects that have increased recipient nations’ emissions by up to 15 per cent.
The 3+1 session was seamlessly integrated into the sixth Partnership for Transatlantic Energy Cooperation (P-TEC) ministerial, co-hosted over two days by the U.S. Department of Energy, Greece’s Ministry of Environment and Energy, and the Atlantic Council. Attracting a record delegation of over 80 U.S. officials, 25 EU energy ministers, and executives from ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, Cheniere Energy, and Energean, the event featured Burgum—present since November 5 for bilateral discussions with Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis at Maximos Mansion—overseeing agreements naming Chevron and Helleniq Energy as preferred investors in Greek offshore blocks, unlocking exploratory campaigns that could replicate Israel’s Tamar and Leviathan successes. U.S. Ambassador Kimberly Guilfoyle and Deputy Secretary of State Michael Rigas praised Greek shipping’s dominance in LNG transport, with Wright highlighting a 25 per cent year-over-year increase in U.S. exports to Greece, directly displacing sanctioned Russian volumes and supporting Ukraine via the Vertical Corridor pipeline network reaching Bulgaria, Romania, Hungary, and beyond.
Digital Governance Minister Dimitris Papastergiou connected IMEC’s fibre-optic infrastructure to Greece’s 2026 DAIDALOS supercomputer rollout and EU-mandated online child-safety age-verification systems, illustrating the corridor’s role in secure, intelligent connectivity. The November 6 P-TEC business forum, convening over 400 stakeholders, debated LNG pricing stabilisation, AI-optimised demand forecasting, and regulatory convergence, with environmental panels advocating hybrid wind-solar solutions to manage AI data centre power surges projected to double regional electricity demand by 2030.
The ministers committed to using the 3+1 format to support the goal of diversifying the region’s energy supplies by reducing reliance on malign actors and improving connectivity between like-minded regional partners. They condemned Russian attempts to circumvent oil sanctions and finance its continuing war on Ukraine. The ministers reaffirmed their commitment to Europe-Israel energy infrastructure cooperation. The ministers aim to convene in Washington, D.C., in the second quarter of 2026 to further build out energy cooperation between their countries under the framework of the Eastern Mediterranean 3+1 Energy Dialogue.
By channelling the 3+1 mechanism to insulate against malign actors—specifically Russia’s shadow fleet circumventing G7 price caps—the ministers fortified IMEC’s geopolitical foundation, enabling India to bypass Pakistan and Iran for direct Gulf-to-Europe energy and trade access. For India, IMEC accelerates its $5 trillion economy vision through industrial corridors in Gujarat and Maharashtra; Gulf partners secure FDI inflows; Europe gains resilient, lower-emission supply chains; and the U.S. exports energy dominance while neutralising adversarial influence.
As P-TEC’s ministerial phase continues today at Zappeion Hall, the Athens accord—verified through the official joint statement and corroborated across diplomatic dispatches—transforms IMEC from visionary blueprint into operational context, weaving Eastern Mediterranean assets into a global network of secure, sustainable, and inclusive prosperity. The spring 2026 Washington sequel will delineate detailed financing modalities, risk-mitigation frameworks, and potential new adherents, ensuring India’s corridor endures as a beacon of collaborative advancement in an era of flux.
*Editor’s Note: The official U.S.–Greece–Cyprus–Israel joint statement of today confirms that the 3+1 ministers reaffirmed cooperation within the context of the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor and condemned Russia’s circumvention of oil sanctions. It does not itself include quantitative or infrastructural details of IMEC’s implementation, which are provided here as background context.
– global bihari bureau
