Officials from India and Poland expressed support for stronger involvement by Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean in the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) and the Three Seas Initiative, at the 22nd Economist Cyprus Summit, on Tuesday.
Speaking during a discussion titled ‘The 3 Seas Initiative and the Mediterranean: Closing the interconnectivity loop’, India’s High Commissioner to Cyprus, Manish Manish, said the island’s strategic location, ports, maritime expertise and shipping services could make it an important Eastern Mediterranean hub within IMEC.
For his part, Poland’s Deputy Minister for European Affairs, Ignacy Niemczycki, said that his country wishes for closer involvement of Cyprus and the wider Mediterranean region in the Three Seas Initiative.
Manish said Cyprus could contribute to IMEC through port infrastructure, shipping and maritime services, storage capacity, and digital and energy connectivity, without necessarily serving as a transit point for every shipment.
‘Cyprus need not be a compulsory transit point for every shipment. Its value can lie in providing complementary services and connection to a wider network,’ he pointed out.
He noted that Cyprus had appointed a national focal point within IMEC’s coordination structure, which includes a steering committee and five technical working groups covering strategy, transport, energy, digital connectivity and finance.
He also referred to the launch in October of the IMEC Ports Club, led by Indian infrastructure company Adani, bringing together port authorities and operators, including participants from Cyprus, Greece and Lebanon. The initiative aims to strengthen cooperation on supply chains, trade facilitation, digital interoperability and decarbonised energy.
Citing an OECD corridor-wide assessment published on November 5, Manish said the institutional foundations for IMEC were being established, but the challenge was now to turn coordination into commercially viable projects backed by cargo commitments, investment and financing.
The Indian High Commissioner stressed that IMEC extended beyond the movement of goods, encompassing maritime, rail and road links, energy infrastructure, digital networks and logistics hubs. Its success would depend on how effectively these elements were integrated.
Manish called for a phased approach, with countries advancing commercially viable projects rather than waiting for all geopolitical and infrastructure challenges to be resolved. He also underlined the importance of maintaining the participation of Saudi Arabia and other original partners, while developing additional connections through Greece, Cyprus, Oman and other European countries.
Niemczycki said the Three Seas Initiative, initially focused on the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas, was increasingly looking towards the Mediterranean as part of a broader connectivity network.
‘We would very much like to see countries such as Cyprus, but also the larger Mediterranean region, involved,’ he said, describing links between the initiative and IMEC as both a business opportunity and a geopolitical one.
He said the Three Seas region had a population of around 120 million and a combined GDP larger than Germany’s, while highlighting the importance of infrastructure serving both commercial and security needs, particularly following Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Domagoj Juricic, former chief of staff to the President of Croatia and senior consultant at MKPS, described the Mediterranean’s closer integration into the Three Seas framework as a natural evolution.
He said the initiative had initially sought to address weak north-south connections along the EU’s eastern flank. Closer links between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic corridors and the Mediterranean were now increasingly important amid geopolitical changes, energy security challenges and emerging trade routes.