Amtrak Joe set to announce rail, shipping project with Narendra Modi: Corridor Biden helped ink would include Saudis, UAE
- White House touts new ‘memorandum of understanding’
- The objective is to establish new navigation corridors between regions
- NSC official said it would reduce ‘turbulence and insecurity’ in the Middle East
The White House is set to announce a new shipping and rail corridor project it calls “revolutionary,” with the prospect of bringing more stability to the turbulent Middle East region by more closely linking regional economies.
The project is a new rail transport corridor that would include the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the European Union – although it is not really “shovel ready”, the leaders set to announce only a “memorandum of understanding”. ‘ above.
National Security Council official John Finer told visiting journalists in New Delhi on Friday that it could help “lower the temperature” on “turmoil and insecurity” coming from the Middle East.
“This will be a clear demonstration of a new model that President Biden has pioneered for more transparent and sustainable development, sustainable, high-level infrastructure that fills a damaged void and enables greater prosperity and connectivity for key regions of the world,” he said. .
President Joe Biden hosted Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi at the start of the G20 meetings on Friday. Leaders are set to announce a new rail and maritime corridor that would include India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and other countries.
Biden is expected to announce it Friday afternoon — in an event that could bring him into close contact with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman, whom Biden infamously fist-bumped during a trip to Saudi Arabia last year last.
Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plan to announce the project as part of the Global Infrastructure Investment Partnership. The rail and maritime corridor would increase trade between the countries, including energy products. It could also be one of the most ambitious counterattacks to China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which sought to connect more of the world to that country’s economy.
Finer outlined three broad rationales for the project during a call with reporters. He initially said the corridor would increase prosperity between the countries involved by increasing the flow of energy and digital communications. Second, the project would help address the lack of infrastructure needed for growth in low- and middle-income countries. And third, Finer said it could help “lower the temperature” of “turbulence and insecurity” coming from the Middle East.
“We see this as having great appeal for the countries involved, but also globally, because it is transparent, because it is a high standard, because it is not coercive,” Finer said. .
Finer also outlined Biden’s agenda at the G20. The first part of the summit revolves around the theme “One Earth”. The US president plans to build on this theme to encourage more investments in the fight against climate change, such as his own domestic incentives aimed at encouraging the use of renewable energy. Biden also wants to argue that Russia’s war in Ukraine is harming many other countries, which have faced higher food and energy costs as well as higher interest rates on their debt.
The second part of the summit focuses on “A family”. Biden plans to use this portion to discuss his request to Congress for additional funding for the World Bank, which could generate more than $25 billion in new loans for economic development.
More generally, the White House is trying to strengthen the G20 as an international forum, while Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin have chosen not to attend. Still, China and Russia are represented at the summit, which could make it difficult for the G20 to produce a joint statement on the war in Ukraine, Finer said.
