No 14, Issue 1       

THE CABLE, THE CORRIDOR AND THE COSCO PROBLEM: GREECE, IMEC AND THE GEOPOLITICS OF INFRASTRUCTURAL POSITIONING

Alexandros S. BALATSOUKAS

pp. 45-55

Abstract

This article reconstructs Greek foreign-policy behaviour across three interconnected infrastructural files of the post-2022 period: the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor  (IMEC) announced at the G20 in September 2023, the GREGY subsea electricity interconnector with Egypt, and the East-to-Med data corridor associated with Saudi Arabia. Together with the suspended EastMed gas pipeline and the long-standing COSCO presence at the Port of Piraeus, these files map a coherent if contested Greek strategy. The article argues that Athens has pursued a strategy of competitive infrastructural positioning, in which the announcement, hosting and political sponsorship of subsea and overland connectivity projects function as a primary instrument of foreign policy rather than as its outcome. The strategy operates across three pillars – transport, energy and digital – and is constrained by three structural conditions: the COSCO presence at Piraeus, the rivalry with Turkey, and the post-October 2023 Eastern Mediterranean crisis. The contribution is conceptual: infrastructural positioning is proposed as a category analytically distinct from infrastructural power, connectivity diplomacy and middle-power forum work, and is specified through a set of observable empirical indicators.

Keywords: Greece; IMEC; submarine cables; infrastructure; connectivity geopolitics; Eastern Mediterranean; EastMed; Piraeus; middle-power diplomacy.

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.