IMEC initiative on track despite conflict in West Asia, says Foreign Secretary ahead of PM’s visit to Saudi Arabia

India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) unaffected by Israel-Palestine conflict, as India strengthens ties with Saudi Arabia.

The Israel-Palestine conflict will not impact the plans for an India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said on Saturday (April 19, 2025), while presenting an overview of India’s relations with Saudi Arabia which will host Prime Minister Narendra Modi and senior Indian officials on April 22 and 23.

“Frankly speaking, I don’t necessarily see any organic linkage between these two issues. India’s position on the two-state solution is a long-held position. I don’t think there is any need to restate anything to this at this stage. In IMEC, work can proceed in parallel. The security situation impacts only certain areas at a particular point in time. It is possible to do work on this particular project in a distributed fashion,” Mr. Misri said, addressing a press event about Mr. Modi’s trip.

The IMEC project was started during the G-20 summit in September 2023 in New Delhi but received an evident setback just weeks later with the eruption of the Israel-Palestine conflict on October 7, 2023. Mr. Misri said that though the required groundwork could not be done after the signing of the framework agreement in 2023, individual countries have made some forward movement in “infrastructure linkages”. He added that work is going to start imminently on connecting electricity grids, which he described as one of the “major pillars of the IMEC initiative”.

“The security situation in the region makes it seem as if progress has frozen on IMEC but we have been working with select partners,” Mr. Misri said, explaining that India is also working to control the violence between the Israelis and Palestinians in the Gaza Strip.

“India has remained involved with all the principal actors in this issue – Palestine, Israel as well as regional leaders like Jordan, Egypt and Saudi Arabia itself,” Mr. Misri said, explaining that India is engaged in ensuring humanitarian supplies and freeing Israeli hostages.

The Foreign Secretary said that the PM’s visit to Saudi Arabia would provide an opportunity to “exchange notes” on regional and global issues, including the threat to navigation posed by the Houthi rebels.

This will be Mr. Modi’s third visit to Saudi Arabia, following previous trips in 2016 and 2019. He will meet Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in Jeddah. “The visit is important on account of the obvious significance of Saudi Arabia as the strategic partner of India,” Mr. Misri said, citing the role that Saudi Arabia plays in India’s energy security as well as the large expat Indian population that the kingdom hosts.