France has a new envoy for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor

France has appointed former CEO of Engie Gérard Mestrallet as the country’s special envoy for the India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor, Reuters reports. Mestrallet served as Engie’s chairman of the board of directors and chief from 2008 to 2016 and was later commissioned by France’s Ecology, Sustainable Development Ministry to chair a three-person advisory committee reviewing the EU’s carbon pricing market.

Refresher on the corridor:The corridor will facilitate trade of green fuels and renewable energy to and from the GCC with an east corridor connecting India to the GCC and a northern corridor linking the Gulf with Europe. The MoU for the interconnection project was inked on the sidelines of the G20 meeting in September by signatories including Saudi Arabia, the UAE, the EU, India, and the US, Reuters writes. KSA and the US signed an MoU to develop a protocol for the establishment of the project’s railway and subsea pipeline infrastructure as part of the latter’s plan to counter China’s Belt and Road project, the newswire adds.