It is an initiative as ambitious in its conception as it is uncertain in its realization: a major commercial and energy axis linking India to Europe by crossing the States of the Arab-Persian Gulf and Israel. Called “India-Middle-East-Europe Economic Corridor” (IMEC), it was launched on September 9, 2023, on the sidelines of the G20 summit in New Delhi, by the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Italy, France, Germany and the European Union. An agreement in principle that is still vague for a project that is delayed, if not compromised, by the massacre of October 7, 2023 in Israel and the war in Gaza.
Emmanuel Macron has appointed his ” correspondent “ for the project, before the other participating countries: Gérard Mestrallet, former CEO of Engie and ex-president of Suez, informed the Elysée, Monday February 12, to Agence France-Presse. Boss of energy and environment groups, he had built numerous power plants, solar parks and seawater desalination plants in the Middle East. To these activities was added, between 2018 and 2023, the presidency of the French Agency for the Development of Al-Ula (Afalula), a gigantic tourism and cultural project launched by Riyadh in the north of Saudi Arabia.
In his mission letter to Mr. Mestrallet, Mr. Macron emphasizes “primary national interest” of IMEC, which diversifies and secures France’s supplies. He wants her to be “a key player” and can “position itself as the main entry and exit point, in Europe, of this future corridor”. In short, Marseille and its port become the real bridgehead, for hydrogen in particular.. Mr. Macron also expects him to mobilize French groups upstream so that they win contracts in transport, energy, engineering and infrastructure.
“I am also here to inform French companies of the projects so that they are ready to respond to international calls for tenders as soon as they are launched”, he explains, citing Engie, EDF, TotalEnergies, Air Liquide, Egis, Vinci, Bouygues, Eiffage, SNCF, Alstom and CMA CGM. He has initiated contacts with several of them and he wants to bring them together at the Elysée. “This mobilization on Al-Ula made it possible to win contracts worth two billion euros for the benefit of French companies”he says.
Hundreds of billions of dollars
IMEC’s main infrastructure is expected to be a rail link between the Emirates and Israel, which “will accelerate trade between India and Europe by 40%”, declared Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, in New Delhi. Goods from India would be unloaded at Emirati and Saudi ports, crossed the Arabian Peninsula by rail to the Israeli port of Haifa, then reloaded on ships bound for Piraeus (Greece), Marseille or Genoa (Italy). .
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