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As Houthis continue to attack Israel-linked ships in the Red Sea, Israeli transport minister Miri Regev recently announced an alternative route for trade, involving the Mundra port in Gujarat.
Here’s how this route will work, who it helps, and its potential pitfalls.
Yemen’s Houthi rebels have been attacking ships linked to Israel in the Red Sea, in solidarity with Gaza, suffering under a relentless Israeli military campaign. This has disrupted global trade, some 12% of which passes through the Red Sea. The Red Sea links the Indian Ocean with the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal. To avoid the danger zone, ships are going all the way to the south of Africa and crossing the Cape of Good Hope, increasing both costs and the time taken.
In fact, seafarers now have the right to refuse to sail on ships passing through the Red Sea, in a new industry agreement signed last week, reported Reuters.
What is the new route?
In this scenario, Israel has been looking for ways to carry out trade bypassing the Red Sea. On February 13, Transport minister Regev posted a video on X, in which she is standing at the Mundra port and describing the new route.
Under this, goods move from Mundra to ports in the UAE, such as Dubai’s Jebel Ali Port, by sea, and then via land through Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israel. A major part of the land transport will be carried out on trucks. According to reports in Israeli and Arab media, these trucks will be operated by two shipping companies, Israel’s Trucknet and the UAE’s PureTrans.
“We are now in the port of Mundra, the largest port in India in the north, from which goods come out… all these containers are exported to the UAE, and from the UAE by land to Israel. The war posed challenges before us, the biggest challenge being how do we bring goods to the State of Israel, as Israel is a coastal state and most goods arrive by sea….Cargo will depart from Mundra to ports via the sea, and then we will load it onto trucks or trains, through Saudi Arabia and Jordan to Israel,” Regev says in the video.
Crucially, a similar route might be used in the India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) too. The ambitious project aims to link India to Europe via the Middle East, but its final shape is yet to be decided and the Gaza war has thrown a spanner in its progress.
What are the benefits, costs of the new route?
This land route has not been thought of suddenly, but had been in the works for some time. Al-Araby Al-Jadeed, a London-based Arab news outlet, quoted economic affairs expert Nehad Ismail as saying that the land corridor had first been proposed at the time of the Abraham Accords (aimed at normalising ties between Israel and some Arab states) in 2020.
The land route will significantly cut travel time and costs for Israel, and will generate revenue for Saudi Arabia and Jordan in terms of transport fee and duties.
However, trucks can carry far fewer goods than a ship can, and to that extent, trade will be limited. Also, the route depends on Israel maintaining friendly ties with the two countries, in a rapidly fluctuating situation in the Middle East.
