EXPERTS ADVISORY

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, President Joe Biden and other G20 leaders announced plans to construct a rail and shipping corridor that would link India with the Middle East and Europe.

University of Michigan experts are available to comment.

Juan Cole, the Richard P. Mitchell Collegiate Professor of History, studies the ongoing political change in the Middle East.

“The plan to ship Indian goods by rail through Saudi Arabia, Jordan and Israel with an infrastructure costing $20 billion is economically daft,” he said. “Sea transport of goods on mega container ships costs $0.80 per nautical mile, while train transport costs $2.50 per mile. The differential is so great that I cannot see the benefit in avoiding the Suez Canal by taking goods on land.

“It seems more geostrategic (the U.S. favoring allies with potential tolls, avoiding dependence on China’s One Belt and Road) than economical.”

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John Ciorciari is a professor and associate dean for research and policy engagement at the Ford School of Public Policy and director of the Ford School’s International Policy Center and Weiser Diplomacy Center. His research focuses on international law and politics in the Global South.

“The G20 summit was a big deal for a few reasons,” he said. “It was a major opportunity for the Modi government to market India as an emergent great power. It was also a chance for Biden to advance the Indo-U.S. relationship at a time when Putin and Xi were absent and to pursue a development agenda in response to China’s Belt and Road Initiative.

“India’s aim of boosting connectivity to the Middle East and Europe is a key illustration of an effort to build multipolar infrastructure across the Eurasian landmass—not simply a China-centric network. India will find suitors for its effort to develop the rail network. Japan, the United States and others are keen to revive the World Bank’s infrastructure lending programs and to use other levers to stay in the game.”

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