Is there an alternative to the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC)?

Turkish President Erdogan has announced plans to create a trade corridor as an alternative to the India-Middle East-Europe Corridor (IMEC), which was agreed upon by the US and EU at the G20 summit in New Delhi earlier this month, as reported by the railway portal Railway Supply, citing railway-technology.

According to the US and EU, IMEC will connect Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Jordan, and Israel by railway, bypassing Turkey entirely, as it proceeds further into Europe and India by sea.

Analysts see this as a counter to the Chinese “Belt and Road Initiative.”

The transfer of grain by rail at the Ukrainian-Polish border is increasing

However, Ankara views IMEC as a threat to Turkey’s historically central role in transporting goods between Europe and Asia.

Erdogan stated that “there can be no corridor without Turkey.”

A significant part of Erdogan’s alternative corridor depends on the implementation of the Iraqi “Roads of Development” project.

Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan insisted that “intensive negotiations” are underway with Iraq, the UAE, and Qatar regarding a transportation route to Turkey from the oil-rich Basra province in southern Iraq via the Great Faw Port.

This project, with a cost of $17 billion, developed by the Italian company Progetti Europa & Global, will build railway and road lines from the Grand Faw Port through the cities of Diwaniyah, Najaf, Karbala, Baghdad, and Mosul, then cross the Turkish border through Silopi and continue into Europe.

It is also expected to provide Iraq with access to the Mersin Port on the Mediterranean coast of Turkey.

“Iraqi companies cannot manage this huge project independently,” said Rifat Sammo, the deputy governor of Mosul, to the Turkish news agency Anadolu Ajansi. “Iraq needs foreign companies for this project, and neighboring Turkey is the closest country to Mosul. We need Turkish companies.”

In 2022, the majority of direct foreign investments by Turkish companies in Iraq were centered around Elkon, based in Istanbul.

According to GlobalData research, the manufacturing company opened three new concrete plants in Baghdad, Kut, and Al-Diwaniyah.

As construction of the “Roads of Development” intensifies, Baghdad expects Turkey to invest the $5 billion they pledged for Iraq’s reconstruction after ISIS at the Kuwait conference in 2018.

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