Energy minister meets US counterpart in Athens week after Wright backed out of Israel visit

After US Energy Secretary Chris Wright canceled his visit to Israel last week, he meets Energy Minister Eli Cohen at a regional energy summit in Athens.

US Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, a close ally of US President Donald Trump, was also at the summit, as were Greek Energy Minister Stavros Papastavrou and Cypriot Energy Minister George Papanastasiou.

Wright backed out of his Israel trip last week after Cohen refused to sign off on a massive gas export agreement recently agreed upon between Jerusalem and Cairo.

According to Cohen’s office, the summit focuses on creating the India-Middle East Economic Corridor. The corridor aims to extend from India across the Arabian Sea to the United Arab Emirates and through Saudi Arabia before connecting through Jordan and Israel to Europe. India and the UAE signed a framework agreement for the project last year.

IMEC was announced on the sidelines of a summit of the leaders of the Group of 20 major economies in September 2023 and was seen as a US alternative to China’s Belt and Road push on global infrastructure. War broke out a month after the announcement, following the Palestinian terror group Hamas’s October 7, 2023, attack on Israel.

“This route would serve as an alternative to existing trade paths, one of which currently passes through Iran, while the other is vulnerable to Houthi attacks,” according to Cohen’s office.

The attendees also discuss moving forward with a natural gas pipeline from Israel to Cyprus, says the Israeli readout, which would eventually reach Greece and the rest of Europe.

They talk about making progress on an undersea electricity cable to connect Israel to Europe’s energy grid through Cyprus.

“We are expanding cooperation with our ally, the United States, and with regional countries, strengthening Israel’s status as a regional energy power, and turning Israel into a bridge between East and West, between Europe and the Gulf states,” says Cohen.