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I'm John Batchewith, my colleague Gregory Coppley of Defense and Foreign Affairs.

We are looking at the map of Eurasia and we're looking at the 21st century.

Russia is involved in a land war in Europe, but Russia's future is in the north-south corridor

that is now possible because the dispute in the South Caucasus has now been resolved.

And Azerbaijan is available to use as part of the Russian-controlled International

North-South Transport corridor, INSTC. However, there is an alternative or a competition.

It's called the India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor, IMAC, IMACC.

It was discussed at the recent Delhi meeting of G20, and it is a way of traveling or overland

and railroad from India all the way to the Mediterranean and Basin bypassing some of the more difficult

regional partners. However, Gregory, you report that you think this is singularly impractical. How so?

Not that it's singularly impractical. One has to wonder as to whether it has been fully

thought out. It was clearly thrown together by the U.S. in preparation, probably in the

seconds before we got on Air Force One. Before President Joe Biden went to the G20 summit in New

Delhi on September the 9th and 10th, because the new IMAC memorandum of understanding was signed

on the margins of that G20 summit. And it's, as you say, India-Middle East Europe Economic Corridor.

...