An agreement in principle was signed Saturday in New Delhi between the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union, France, Germany and Italy, according to a statement released by the White House.

"It's really important": commenting on this signing, the US president spoke of a "historic" agreement during a round table bringing together the leaders concerned.

It is "much more than +only+ rail or cable," said European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, referring to "a green and digital bridge between continents and civilisations".

At the end of the meeting, Joe Biden approached Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, host of the G20 summit, and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, for a collective handshake.

Biden and "MBS"

A little over a year ago, the 80-year-old democrat sparked intense controversy during a trip to Saudi Arabia, when he hailed Mohammed bin Salman with a check, whom the United States considers to be the sponsor of the murder of journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

But water has flowed under the bridge, and Washington is now redoubling its efforts to strengthen ties with the oil monarchy, in the name of its strategic interests.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi (C), US President Joe Biden (R) and Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman at the G20 summit in New Delhi, September 9, 2023 © EVELYN HOCKSTEIN/POOL/AFP

"We want to launch a new era connected via a rail network, connecting ports in Europe, the Middle East and Asia," according to a document released by the Biden administration about the big announcement of a "corridor" between India and Europe. The aim is to create "trade nodes", while "encouraging the development and export of clean energy".

It will also involve laying submarine cables.

According to a source close to the matter, the project also provides for a hydrogen corridor that would connect Dubai, in the United Arab Emirates, and Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, with the Israeli port of Haifa and then to European ports. The France hopes that Marseille can be the European "bridgehead" of the project, President Emmanuel Macron praising the "expertise" of French companies in transport and energy.

The project must also "advance integration in the Middle East," including between "unlikely partners," said White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, who mentioned Israel and Jordan among the countries involved.

Joe Biden, anxious to leave his diplomatic mark in the region, is trying to convince Saudi Arabia and Israel to normalize relations.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the United States approached Israel several months ago for the project, which he said will "reshape the face of the Middle East."

"The State of Israel will be a hub of this economic initiative," he said in a statement late Saturday.

"Israel will bring all its capabilities, experience and full commitment to make this collaborative project the largest in our history," he added.

The agreement on the major infrastructure project, whose timing remains unclear, "is not specifically a harbinger of normalization," said Jake Sullivan.

With this announcement, the US president is trying to fill the space left vacant by Chinese President Xi Jinping, who like his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin was not in New Delhi for the G20.

Africa

The United States and Europe have also announced that they are partnering to support another infrastructure project in Africa: the "Lobito corridor", linking the Democratic Republic of Congo and Zambia via the port of Lobito in Angola.

If the project to connect India to Europe through various countries in the Middle East was really "realized, it would change the rules of the game," said in a message on X (ex-Twitter) Michael Kugelman, an expert at the Wilson Center in Washington, and it "would aim to counter the BRI".

The "Belt and Road Initiative" is the acronym for the so-called "New Silk Road" program through which Beijing makes massive investments in many developing countries to build infrastructure.

Its opponents denounce a Chinese Trojan horse, intended to gain political influence, and criticize the debt it imposes on poor countries.

Joe Biden had called it in June a "program of debt and confiscation".

"In this idea (of a new logistics corridor), there is competition with the +Silk Roads+," confirmed a French diplomatic source, for whom Delhi's announcement is "just the beginning of a long story".

For Paris, it would be necessary, in the long term, "to see how Egypt enters the round table".

© 2023 AFP