Roving Periscope: To counter China’s BRI, India and France ‘reinforce’ IMEEC
Virendra Pandit
New Delhi: Days after Panama, under pressure from the US, announced to dissociate from China’s multi-continental USD 200 billion Belt and Road Initiative (BRI), New Delhi and Paris have ‘reinforced’ the proposed USD 400 billion India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEEC).
In this regard, French shipping major CMA CGM will play a key role, the media reported on Thursday.
During his just-concluded visit to France, Prime Minister Narendra Modi along with French President Emmanuel Macron visited the company’s Group Headquarters in Marseille on Wednesday and met with Rodolphe Saade, Chairman and CEO of the CMA CGM Group.
CMA CGM will play a pivotal role in the IMEEC), the company said in a statement after the high-profile visit of PM Modi and President Macron.
Their discussions focused on the IMEEC, which is a strategic trade route designed to enhance connectivity between India and Europe. The CMA CGM Group, a global player in maritime, land, air, and logistics solutions, intends to actively contribute to this initiative, the statement said.
The massive project, mooted during the G-20 Summit in New Delhi in September 2023, aims to enhance transit between Europe and India through integrated maritime and land infrastructure and facilitate energy transport and telecommunications via a subsea cable. This strategic corridor will also significantly boost trade between the European Union and the Middle East.
With a modern fleet adapted to alternative energy sources and key port hubs in India, the UAE, and the Mediterranean, CMA CGM will be a key contributor to the Corridor’s efficiency. Besides, a network of dry ports along the IMEEC rail route—stretching from India through Saudi Arabia and the Middle East to Europe—will leverage the Group’s logistics expertise, reinforcing the economic and strategic vision of this alternative trade route.
By combining maritime flexibility with land connectivity, CMA CGM will play a vital role in the success of this transformative trade corridor., the company said.
On February 1, 2024, while tabling the Interim Budget for 2024-25 in the Lok Sabha, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that the IMEEC is a strategic and economic game changer for India and others. Quoting PM Modi, she said the proposed Corridor “will become the basis of world trade for hundreds of years to come, and history will remember that this Corridor was initiated on Indian soil”.
For the project, a MoU was signed among Saudi Arabia, the European Union, India, the UAE, France, Germany, Italy and the US. It will include two separate Corridors — the Eastern Corridor connecting India to the Arabian Gulf and the Northern Corridor between the Arabian Gulf and Europe.
It will also include railway projects to provide a reliable and cost-effective cross-border ship-to-rail transit network to supplement existing maritime and road transport routes enabling goods and services to transit between India, the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, Israel, and Europe.
With a presence in 160 countries through 400 offices, 750 warehouses, 160,000 employees and a large fleet of 620 vessels, CMA CGM services 420 of the world’s 521 commercial ports and operates over 250 shipping lines.
In India, it has a 34-year-long presence, with a workforce of nearly 17,000 employees, connecting the country with the rest of the world through 19 maritime services. It is also developing port infrastructure in India, with investments in terminals at Nhava Sheva Free Port (NSFT), near Mumbai, and Mundra Port, Gujarat.
CEVA Logistics, CMA CGM’s logistics subsidiary, operates across 105 sites in 31 Indian cities, managing around 900,000 sq mt of warehouse space. The acquisition of Stellar VCS in 2023 strengthened CEVA Logistics’ role in India’s contract logistics sector, offering global expertise and innovative solutions to enhance operational efficiency, the media added.
