India, Sept. 23 -- US President Donald Trump's endorsement of the India-Middle East Economic Corridor (IMEC) on the sidelines of the ongoing United Nations General Assembly comes 20 days after he praised a media report about Syria emerging as a corridor to evacuate oil and gas from the Gulf to the Mediterranean Sea.

Even though many western think-tankers saw Syria as an alternative to IMEC, the latter is clearly a more viable proposition as it links the oil suppliers (Gulf) to refineries (India) and consumers (Indian subcontinent and Europe). This apart, stability of the Syrian regime is also remains a big question mark despite support from the Trump administration.

The IMEC links India (Mundra port) to the UAE (Fujairah port) via sea l...