Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday, 17 June 2026 floated the idea of expanding India's connectivity ambitions beyond the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) model to cover Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific Islands, suggesting a new financing framework that blends G7 capital with India's technical talent and Global South ownership.

Context

In his post, Modi asked: 'Like the vision of IMEC, can we work on connectivity projects with countries in Africa, Latin America and the Pacific Islands?' He further proposed that 'by combining G7 capital, India's talent and the ownership of Global South countries, we may also consider establishing an International Mobilisation' framework — though the full institutional design of the proposed mechanism was not elaborated in the post.

The remarks signal that New Delhi is actively considering a structured, multi-regional extension of the connectivity model that underpins IMEC, applying it to the broader developing world rather than a single corridor.

Policy Backdrop

IMEC was formally launched at the G20 New Delhi Summit in September 2023 as a multi-modal corridor linking India with Europe via the Middle East, backed by G7 nations as an alternative to China's Belt and Road Initiative. The corridor was designed to reduce logistics costs and build resilient supply chains across participating nations.

India's engagement with the regions now being discussed has its own institutional history. The Forum for India-Pacific Islands Cooperation (FIPIC), launched in 2014, provides the framework for development and connectivity partnerships with Pacific Island nations. The India-Africa Forum Summit, initiated in 2008, has channelled lines of credit and capacity-building support across the African continent, with the third edition held in 2015 committing significant development finance.

For Latin America, India has engaged through multilateral platforms including the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC) ministerial dialogue, though a dedicated corridor-style initiative has not yet been formalised.

Stakeholders and Impact

G7 development finance institutions — including those of the United States, European Union, Japan, and United Kingdom — would be the primary capital providers under the model Modi envisions. Indian engineering, infrastructure, and technology firms stand to benefit as implementation partners, consistent with the role Indian companies have played in projects financed through India's lines of credit to Africa.

For Global South recipient countries, the proposed framework explicitly emphasises 'ownership' — a direct counter-narrative to the debt-dependency criticisms levelled at China's Belt and Road Initiative. Governments across Africa, Latin America, and the Pacific Islands have increasingly sought infrastructure financing that does not come with sovereign debt risks or conditionalities that limit policy autonomy.

Indian diplomatic missions and multilateral forums such as the Voice of Global South Summit, which New Delhi has hosted multiple times, provide ready-made channels for consulting partner governments on such a framework.

What's Next

Concrete institutional design and any funding pledges attached to the proposed 'International Mobilisation' mechanism remain to be defined. Analysts will watch upcoming G20 and BRICS summits, as well as scheduled India-Africa and India-CELAC ministerial meetings, for follow-up announcements.

If formalised, the initiative would mark a significant expansion of India's post-2023 connectivity diplomacy — positioning New Delhi not merely as a corridor participant but as an architect of a parallel global infrastructure financing architecture rooted in Global South ownership and G7 capital.