The Yemen conflict has seen an alarming erosion in the shipping industry’s confidence in the Suez Canal continuing to be the backbone of east-west trade. Shippers are not baulking at taking the long, circuitous voyage around Africa.
The Yemen conflict has beefed up the case for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) which the Gaza war has seemingly dealt a major, if not fatal, blow. Seshadri Vasan, Director-General of the Chennai Centre for China Studies, says that even if the Yemen conflict — ironically, an offshoot of the Gaza war — abates soon, it has made the case for viable alternatives to the Suez Canal stronger.
Critics of IMEC say the Arab Street would simply not allow any major trade link between Saudi Arabia and Israel many years after the Gaza war ends. A United States government press release of September 9 on the IMEC memorandum of understanding promised that stakeholders would meet within 60 days to flesh out the details, but the Gaza war has ensured that no such meeting could possibly happen.
