I2U2 and IMEC: India's two new architectures with Israel

Two new multilateral architectures have changed the way India and Israel relate to each other since 2021. The I2U2 grouping (India, Israel, the United Arab Emirates and the United States) is a four-country minilateral with a working agenda across six pillars. The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) is a larger infrastructure undertaking connecting India through the Gulf and Israel to Europe. They are distinct undertakings but they overlap in members and in strategic logic. This piece sets out both.

I2U2: the four-country minilateral

I2U2 was launched at foreign-minister level on 18 October 2021. The first leaders' summit was held virtually on 14 July 2022 with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett (Israel; succeeded mid-process by Yair Lapid and then Benjamin Netanyahu), President Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan (UAE) and President Joe Biden (US, succeeded by Donald Trump in January 2025).

The grouping organises its working agenda around six pillars: water, energy, transport, space, health, and food security.

The signature initial commitment from the 2022 summit was a USD 2 billion package of integrated food parks in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh, with UAE financing, Israeli technology and Indian construction. A separate USD 330 million hybrid renewable-energy project in Gujarat was also announced.

I2U2 sits alongside several other US-anchored minilaterals (the Quad, AUKUS) but is structurally distinct. It is not a security grouping; it has no military exercise track; and its working method is closer to a development consortium than a strategic alliance. Its operating premise is that the technology stack of Israel, the financing capacity of the UAE, the scale and market of India, and the convening power of the United States together can deliver concrete projects faster than larger multilateral institutions.

Through 2025 and into 2026, I2U2 activity has been more measured than the 2022 launch suggested. The 2023 Hamas attack and the war that followed slowed the working tempo. Activity resumed in mid-2025 and continues, with implementation rather than headline-deal announcements the visible mode.

IMEC: the corridor

The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor was announced on 9 September 2023 at the G20 Summit in New Delhi. The founding memorandum of understanding was signed by India, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the European Union, France, Germany, Italy and the United States.

IMEC's design has two corridors. The Eastern Corridor runs from India by sea to the United Arab Emirates. The Northern Corridor runs from the UAE across Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israel, with onward shipping from Israeli Mediterranean ports (primarily Haifa) to Europe. Within each corridor IMEC envisages rail, shipping, electricity transmission, hydrogen pipelines and digital-connectivity cables.

The strategic case is that IMEC would offer a higher-speed and lower-cost alternative to the Suez Canal route for India-Europe trade. Detailed estimates published by IMEC participants suggest a transit-time saving of approximately 40 per cent and a cost saving of approximately 30 per cent for the relevant cargo categories, although these figures rest on assumptions about the build-out that are not yet realised.

What has actually been done

Construction of key infrastructure components officially began in April 2025. The most visible progress has been on the Eastern Corridor segment (India to the UAE), and on Israeli-side port and rail-link infrastructure at Haifa, which had already been under modernisation.

France hosted a dedicated IMEC summit in Marseille in June 2025. Italy followed with a Trieste summit later in 2025, promoting Trieste as a "strategic gateway port" for European disembarkation.
The European Union and India signed a long-running trade agreement in January 2026, expected to give IMEC additional momentum.

The middle segment remains the hard part. As of mid-2026, the Saudi Arabia to Jordan to Israel rail link, which is the physical spine of the Northern Corridor, exists largely on paper. Funding commitments for that segment have not been finalised. The 2023 Hamas attack and the Gaza war that followed delayed work on the Israeli end of the corridor, although the October 2025 ceasefire has reopened the planning window.

Implementation is currently advancing through bilateral frameworks more than through the eight-party MoU. India and the UAE signed an Intergovernmental Framework Agreement specifically on IMEC operation in February 2024. India and Saudi Arabia have established a joint task force.

How the two architectures interact

I2U2 and IMEC overlap in three members (India, Israel, UAE) and one major external partner (the United States). They are not the same project: I2U2 is a working group with funded projects; IMEC is an infrastructure corridor with a memorandum of understanding and partial financing.

The overlap is operationally useful. The I2U2 working agenda includes transport and energy infrastructure, the same domains where IMEC requires multilateral coordination. The India-UAE-Israel triangle, which is the geographic core of IMEC's Northern Corridor, is the same triangle that I2U2 works through. Several Indian commentators describe I2U2 as the political precursor to IMEC and IMEC as the infrastructural translation of I2U2.

Both architectures share a constraint: their build-out depends on the regional security environment. The 2023 to 2025 war and the related US Security Council activity slowed both. The October 2025 ceasefire and the February 2026 elevation of the India-Israel bilateral have improved the planning environment, but the underlying funding, project-finance and engineering hurdles remain.

In one paragraph

Two new architectures connect India and Israel multilaterally. I2U2 (India, Israel, UAE, USA) launched in 2021 with a six-pillar working agenda (water, energy, transport, space, health, food security) and signature 2022 commitments worth USD 2.3 billion in food and renewable parks in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh. IMEC, announced at the G20 in September 2023 by eight partners, plans a rail and shipping corridor from India through the Gulf and Israel to Europe with claimed transit-time and cost savings of 40 and 30 per cent against the Suez route. Construction began in April 2025; the Eastern Corridor and Israeli port-side infrastructure are progressing; the Saudi-Jordan-Israel rail link is still mostly on paper. The October 2025 ceasefire and the February 2026 India-Israel Special Strategic Partnership have improved the planning environment for both undertakings, but neither is yet fully built.

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Sources

[1]: I2U2 background and history, US Department of State. https://www.state.gov/i2u2

[2]: "I2U2 Group." Wikipedia (overview with citations to founding statements). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I2U2_Group

[3]: I2U2 Leaders' Summit joint statement, 14 July 2022, White House. https://www.whitehouse.gov/

[4]: "I2U2 working agenda and project pipeline." Indian Ministry of External Affairs press releases. https://www.mea.gov.in/

[5]: India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), official site. https://www.imec.international/

[6]: "India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor." Wikipedia overview. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/India%E2%80%93Middle_East%E2%80%93Europe_Economic_Corridor

[7]: "The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor: Connectivity in an era of geopolitical uncertainty." Atlantic Council (August 2025). https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/wp-content/uploads/2025/08/The-India-Middle-East-Europe-Economic-Corridor-Connectivity-in-an-era-of-geopolitical-uncertainty.pdf

[8]: "EU-India trade deal signed January 2026 gives IMEC extra momentum." European Commission press releases. https://ec.europa.eu/

[9]: "With Hormuz under strain, a trade corridor built for resilience faces a real-world test." Fortune (April 2026). https://fortune.com/2026/04/17/imec-india-middle-east-europe-corridor-hormuz-trade-supply-chain/

[10]: "India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor: Promise, Peril, and the Politics of Connectivity." Modern Diplomacy (October 2025). https://moderndiplomacy.eu/2025/10/22/india-middle-east-europe-economic-corridor-promise-peril-and-the-politics-of-connectivity/

[11]: "The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor - backgrounder." Middle East Institute. https://mei.edu/backgrounder/the-india-middle-east-europe-economic-corridor/