French envoy says IMEC financing differs fundamentally from China's Belt and Road

At a press conference hosted by the French Embassy in New Delhi, Gérard Mestrallet, the French President’s special envoy for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), said the corridor’s financing structure is fundamentally different from China’s Belt and Road Initiative, which is backed by a single central bank. IMEC is being built through a coalition of nations, institutions and private-sector participants, creating a network of complementary routes that can bypass blockages or crises.

Mestrallet linked the urgency of this approach to recent Middle-East upheavals - the Gaza war, Iran tensions and threats to the Strait of Hormuz - which have underscored the need for alternative trade pathways. He noted that the corridor should be viewed as a strategic, not merely economic, project to strengthen links between India and Europe. While emphasizing the geostrategic aim, he added that commercial decisions will ultimately be driven by cost, speed and infrastructure performance, with safer, albeit longer, routes sometimes being more competitive.