Greece and India are working to enhance cooperation in shipping, with the Port of Piraeus potentially serving as a central hub for India’s exports to Europe.
This was discussed during a meeting between Sarbananda Sonowal, Union Minister for Ports, Shipping and Inland Waterways of India, and Christos Stylianides, the Minister of Maritime Affairs of Greece, in New Delhi on Monday.
Stylianides noted significant interest from Indian exporters in accessing European markets, with officials at the meeting highlighting Greece’s potential to play a pivotal role through the Piraeus transshipment complex. The strategically positioned Piraeus Port can serve as a gateway to the European Union.
Greece is also keen to invite Indian investments into the country’s expanding ports sector, he maintained. Stylianides mentioned that the country had tied up with European nations to launch Mission Aspides in the Red Sea thereby ensuring security and safety of maritime trade against potential Houthi attacks.
Greece, India discuss the India -Middle East-Europe (IMEC) shipping corridor
“Greece is a leader in world shipping,” the Indian minister noted. “We discussed the India -Middle East-Europe (IMEC) corridor. To make operational the route from India to the UAE, Saudi Arabia, Jordan and through the Mediterranean Sea to Greece. We will do all that is needed,” he stressed according to India’s news agency ANI News.
The IMEC is a new trade route connecting India, the Middle East, and Europe. Announced in 2023, it aims to improve trade, transport, and communication between these regions through a network of railways and sea routes. The project is designed to make trade faster and more efficient, boosting economic ties and reducing reliance on longer routes.
The corridor is envisioned as an alternative to the Suez Canal, which is currently overloaded and faces disruptions.
However, the successful implementation of the corridor would require significant investment and coordination among various stakeholders, including governments, businesses, and international organizations.
Praising Greece’s global stature in the shipping industry, Sonowal expressed India’s interest in fostering Greek investments. “We want Greece companies to operate in India and play an important role in the shipbuilding sector,” he stated, according to Business World India.
Greece and India forge “strategic ties”
In February 2024, Prime Minister Narendra Modi met the Prime Minister of Greece Kyriakos Mitsotakis. During his visit to India, Mitsotakis asserted that despite the Israeli war in Gaza “destabilizing” plans for the India-Middle East Economic Corridor (IMEC), India and Greece should persevere with the “peace project”.
He emphasized that thanks to the India-Middle East-Europe economic corridor, the future is brighter and “one only has to look at the map to see that Greece is India’s gateway to Europe.”
“The war in Gaza and turmoil in the Middle East is undoubtably destabilizing but it does not undermine the powerful logic behind IMEC. Nor should it weaken our resolve to work towards realizing it,” Mitsotakis had told a gathering of international delegates at the conference organized by the Ministry of External Affairs and the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).
In August 2023, during the visit of India’s PM to Athens, the two countries agreed to elevate their relationship to a “strategic partnership.”