Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Friday hailed the India-to-Europe Economic Corridor as a “blessing” that will dramatically lower costs for over 2 billion people.

At the G20 summit in New Delhi “we saw another blessing in sight”, he said of the “plans for the visionary corridor” announced by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Joe Biden.

“It will connect India to Europe with maritime links, rail links, energy pipelines, fibre optic cables, this corridor will bypass maritime checkpoints or choke points rather, and dramatically lower the cost of goods, communication and energy for over 2 billion people”, he said. 

Israel will benefit from it by becoming “a bridge of peace”.

Situated on the crossroads of Asia, Africa and Europe, Netanyahu said that “for centuries, my country was repeatedly invaded by empires passing through it in their campaigns of plunder and conquest elsewhere. But today, today as we tear down the walls of enmity Israel can become a bridge of peace and prosperity between these continents and prosperity between these continents [Asia and Europe]”.

Netanyahu, who uses props in his addresses to the UN, pulled up a map of the region and with a red marker dramatically traced the route of the India-to-Europe corridor.

He attributed the plans for the corridor to the normalising relations between Israel and its Arab nations.

In particular, he mentioned the attempts to normalise ties with Saudi Arabia that the two countries are pursuing with the US.

“Every day we get closer”, Saudi Arabia’s Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman said in a Fox News interview on Wednesday.