Biden and Modi to announce rail and shipping project to link India to Middle East and Europe

NEW DELHI -- NEW DELHI (AP) — President Joe Biden and his allies plan to roll out plans on Saturday for a shipping corridor that would connect India with the Middle East and ultimately Europe — a possible Game changer for global trade to be announced at the Group of 20 summit.

The proposed memorandum of understanding for a shipping and rail transportation corridor would include the United States, India, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, the European Union and other countries in the G20, said Jon Finer, the president's deputy national security adviser.

Biden and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi plan to announce the project as part of the Partnership for Global Infrastructure Investment. The rail and shipping corridor would enable greater trade among the countries, including energy products. It could also be one of the more ambitious counters to China's own belt and road initiative that sought to connect more of the world to that country's economy.

Finer laid out three big rationales for the project in a call with reporters. He said first that the corridor would increase prosperity among the countries involved by increasing the flow of energy and digital communications. Second, the project would help to address the lack of infrastructure needed for growth in lower- and middle-income nations. And third, Finer said it could help “turn the temperature down” on “turbulence and insecurity” coming out of the Middle East.

"We see this as having a high appeal to the countries involved, and also globally, because it is transparent, because it is a high standard, because it is not coercive," Finer said.

Finer also laid out Biden's agenda at the G20. The first session of the summit revolves around the theme of “One Earth.” The U.S. president plans to draw on the theme to push for more investments to address climate change, such as his own domestic incentives to encourage the use of renewable energy. Biden also wants to make the case that Russia's war in Ukraine is hurting many other nations, which have had to cope with greater food and energy costs as well as higher interest rate costs on their debt.

The second session is about “One Family.” Biden plans to use this portion to discuss his request to Congress for additional funding for the World Bank that could generate more than $25 billion in new lending for economic development.

The White House more broadly 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 and that could make it difficult for the G20 to produce a joint statement on the war in Ukraine, Finer said.