Nirmala Sitharaman: The US-backed economic corridor faces challenges due to the Israel-Gaza conflict

 Nirmala Sitharaman: The US-backed economic corridor faces challenges due to the Israel-Gaza conflict

In an effort to offset China's Belt and Road initiative, which is putting pressure on global infrastructure, the US announced in September an agreement to build a new economic corridor that would connect the Middle East and South Asia by ports and trains.

A "worrying manifestation" of geopolitical threats to the US-backed transnational economic corridor, according to India's Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, is the Israel-Gaza war.

In an effort to offset China's Belt and Road initiative, which is putting pressure on global infrastructure, the US announced in September an agreement to build a new economic corridor that would connect the Middle East and South Asia by ports and trains.

The planned route would go via Israel, which is at war with Hamas in the Gaza Strip as reprisal for the terrorist group's cross-border assault on Israel on October 7.

"The ongoing conflict in Israel and Gaza is a worrying manifestation of this—it (the corridor) is not without its geopolitical challenges," Sitharaman said at a conference.