Israel Pushes India-to-Europe Alliance Against Iran's Rise
Get the Geopolitics newsletter
Daily geopolitics — wars, elections, sanctions, the diplomatic moves that move markets. Free.
- Amir Baram, Israel's Ministry of Defence Director General, called at the Herzliya Conference for a wider alliance running from India through the UAE to Greece and Cyprus to counter Iran's military rise
- Baram argued the war has shown 'every actor in the region' the price of Iran's military buildup, creating a shared interest in forging a broader alignment rather than relying on bilateral ties alone
- Israel's defence chief proposed a new US-Israel security MoU rooted in 'hard interests and shared values,' publicly noting that 'for us, Iran is an existential threat; for the United States, it is a chronic regional challenge' while China and the Indo-Pacific remain Washington's core concern
- The proposed corridor broadly overlaps with the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor announced on the sidelines of the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi, designed to improve connectivity among India, the Gulf, Europe and the US
- Baram warned that the recent US-Iran MoU — under which billions in frozen Iranian funds would be released alongside a reconstruction plan worth hundreds of billions of dollars — could 'dramatically accelerate' Iran's military buildup
- The framing for Washington positioned a 'strong, independent, and proactive Israel' as the asset that lets the US redirect resources toward Asia, arguing the partnership must move beyond shared values to shared strategic interests under an 'America First' US administration
Why it matters: Israel's top defence official is publicly admitting a strategic gap with Washington — Iran is existential for Israel, 'chronic' for an America fixated on Taiwan. By pitching an India-to-Gulf-to-Europe corridor and reframing Israel as a force-multiplier that frees US resources for Asia, Baram is laying the groundwork for an alternative security architecture rather than waiting for American attention to return to the Middle East.
Ask SkimNews
