Greece’s long-planned electricity interconnection with Cyprus has been thrust into a new geopolitical framework, as the Greek government seeks to integrate the project into the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC). The move promises a broader pool of potential investors but, in practice, appears to freeze the project’s immediate implementation while shifting its political and financial context.
According to an analysis by journalist Giannis Kimpouropoulos in the Greek daily Efimerida ton Syntakton, the Athens–Nicosia dispute over financing and implementation of the subsea cable is now being reframed through the lens of a rival trade and infrastructure axis to China’s Belt and Road Initiative. The IMEC concept, promoted as a strategic trade and energy route linking India to Europe via the Gulf and the Eastern Mediterranean, is now being used to justify a fresh review of the project’s economic and technical parameters – and to buy time.
The IMEC initiative dates back to September 2023, when India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi, with the participation of the United States, the European Union, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, France, Germany and Italy, signed a memorandum of understanding aimed at creating an integrated corridor for sea and land freight between East and West. The project was later embraced by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, while Greece expressed interest in hosting a European terminal, with the port of Piraeus entering into an informal competition with Marseille and Trieste. That raised an irony highlighted in Greek debate: how a port effectively controlled by China’s Cosco could serve as a key node in an overtly counter-Chinese scheme.
Despite such unanswered questions, Greek Energy and Environment Minister Stavros Papastavrou on Wednesday explicitly linked the future of the Greece–Cyprus (and Israel) electricity cable to IMEC. Speaking to Greek television channel Open, he hailed Greece’s role as a “gateway for American liquefied natural gas (LNG) into Europe” and argued that the global race for energy interconnections and trade corridors – involving the US, EU, Gulf states and Israel – has created “conditions of broader interest” for the cable as well. In this context, he said, the government sees the need to update all economic and technical data, resolve outstanding issues, and determine whether the project “brings something to our economy.”
In reality, analysts note that the turn to IMEC functions as a politically convenient way out of a difficult impasse. The original deadlock centered on how Cyprus would finance its share of the 1,200-kilometer interconnection, including the 900-kilometer deep-sea section between Cyprus and Crete. The current approach – seeking new investors from the US, Israel or Gulf countries under the IMEC umbrella – means postponement rather than acceleration. It also offers Nicosia a discreet diplomatic win, after it resisted pressure to commit funds without clarity on political risks, particularly the potential reaction from Turkey to the cable’s route in contested waters.
The delay, however, is more painful for those already heavily invested in the project. Greek grid operator ADMIE has reportedly spent around €300 million so far. Cable manufacturer Nexans has produced roughly 300 kilometers of subsea cable but has been paid for less than half of that work. Meanwhile, the European Commission remains formally committed: a spokesperson for Energy and Housing Commissioner Dan Jørgensen said Brussels “strongly supports” the project, calling it a “strategic priority” that should see the light of day “as soon as possible.” Yet when asked whether the Commission plans to engage Ankara to ease regional tensions around the cable route, the spokesperson said there was no information on any planned contacts between Jørgensen and Turkish officials.
For now, the Greece–Cyprus interconnection sits in limbo: rebranded as part of a grand strategic corridor, but effectively stalled, caught between regional power politics, investor uncertainty and a shifting global energy map.