United States President Donald Trump said on Tuesday, September 22, 2026, that his administration “strongly supports” the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) as a way to move the region’s energy infrastructure away from chokepoints under Iranian control.

Speaking to Gulf Cooperation Council leaders on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York, Trump said: “Iran’s terrorist attacks on commercial shipping in neighboring countries have shown the need to shift Middle East energy infrastructure away from the Iranian checkpoints. That’s why my administration strongly supports the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor and other places in the form of getting oil out, whether it’s pipelines or anything else,” according to the Hindustan Times and ANI. Launched on September 9, 2023 at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in New Delhi, the corridor is meant to connect India to the Gulf and the Gulf to Europe by sea, rail and road.