WASHINGTON, DC
The House Foreign Affairs Committee has approved legislation that would formally position the Eastern Mediterranean as a strategic gateway to the India–Middle East–Europe Economic Corridor, an ambitious trade and infrastructure project backed by the United States and its allies.
The bill, known as the Eastern Mediterranean Gateway Act, was cleared this week by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs, marking a key step in a legislative effort to anchor the region more firmly into Washington’s long-term energy, security, and connectivity strategy.
While the committee vote sends the measure to the House floor, its path to passage remains uncertain. With midterm elections looming in 2026, congressional leaders are expected to devote most floor time to must-pass legislation, particularly government funding and defense authorization bills. The measure is widely expected to advance as an amendment attached to one of those larger packages.
The legislation, introduced on a bipartisan basis by Representative Brad Schneider, a Democrat of Illinois, and Representative Gus Bilirakis, a Republican of Florida, seeks to elevate the Eastern Mediterranean from a collection of ad hoc partnerships into a defined pillar of American foreign policy tied to the IMEC corridor. That corridor is intended to link India to Europe through the Middle East via ports, railways, digital infrastructure, and energy networks.
At its core, the bill calls for deeper U.S. cooperation with a group of countries that includes India, Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and Egypt, with a focus on energy security and defense coordination. It identifies a series of infrastructure projects as strategically significant, including the Great Sea Interconnector electricity cable, the planned Greece–Egypt power link known as GREGY, the Greece–Bulgaria natural gas pipeline, and the expansion of liquefied natural gas terminals in the region.
Supporters of the legislation argue that these projects are essential not only to Europe’s energy resilience but also to the viability of a corridor designed to connect Asian and Middle Eastern supply chains to European markets while reducing dependence on rival powers.
The bill directs the Secretary of State to make the Eastern Mediterranean a standing priority of U.S. foreign policy and to strengthen existing cooperation frameworks, including the so-called 3+1 format involving Greece, Cyprus, Israel, and the United States. It also calls for expanded U.S. engagement with the East Mediterranean Gas Forum, a regional body that coordinates energy policy among producer and transit countries.
The proposal aligns closely with recent U.S. efforts to promote regional normalization and integration. It builds on legislation passed in 2022 that reinforced U.S.–Israel relations and explicitly supports diplomatic initiatives such as the Abraham Accords, which aim to deepen economic and security ties across the Middle East.
Under the bill, the State Department would be required to submit annual reports to Congress detailing progress on energy and defense projects, the status of multilateral initiatives linked to IMEC, and the overall implementation of the law.
It also calls for a feasibility study on creating bilateral cooperation programs with Eastern Mediterranean countries, modeled on existing partnerships between Greece and Israel in areas including agriculture, technology, security, and scientific research, with the option of expanding those programs to other IMEC participants.
The legislation singles out Cyprus’s CYCLOPS security training center as a model for regional cooperation and references a recent presidential determination that made Cyprus eligible for certain U.S. defense equipment.
Petros Kasfikis is an accredited correspondent covering the White House, State Department, and Capitol Hill for MEGA TV and newspaper To Vima. For the latest political developments from Washington, D.C., you can subscribe to his YouTube channel: youtube.com/c/PKas?sub_confirmation=1
