The historic public port through which most commercial traffic passes has been awarded to a consortium controlled 70% by the Indian group. A second private port managed by the Chinese of the Shanghai International Port Group was already opened last year. Israel’s goal is to make it a major hub for freight traffic in the Mediterranean. And there is already talk of a “bid” for the railway connection with the Gulf.
Haifa () – The Israeli government has decided to award the port of Haifa to a consortium formed by the Israeli company Gadot Chemical Terminals and the Indian company Adani Ports and Special Economic Zone Ltd, owned by the Indian oligarch Gautam Adani, who is very close to the prime minister. from New Delhi, Narendra Modi. The consortium – in which the Indian company owns 70% of the capital – won the tender with an offer of 1,180 million dollars (1,170 million euros), much higher than what the Israeli government expected to collect. The concession will last until 2054.
The focal point of this privatization is the historic port of Haifa, the main gateway to Israel by sea for passengers and cargo. It is part of a broader development plan that includes the opening of a second private port in Haifa Bay last year, the Haifa Bay Port, run by China’s Shanghai International Port Group (SIPG). Washington strongly opposes this presence for fear that the US Navy’s Sixth Fleet, which docks from time to time in the port of Haifa, could be vulnerable to the Dragon’s intelligence surveillance and espionage systems.
Israel has invested heavily in opening the port sector, which is strategic for the country, to private investment: 90% of the country’s commercial traffic passes through Haifa Bay and the goal is to increase efficiency and reduce docking fees. But Haifa is also destined to become more important in terms of relations and trade between Israel and the Gulf countries, linked to the Abraham Accords. For some time there has been talk of a rail link project between the Israeli port and Jordan, which would thus become the first section of a much broader route for the transport of goods. And it is likely that the Adani group, in open competition with the Chinese, will also seek to be part of that project. For its part, Egypt opposes it, because it considers it a dangerous competition for the Suez Canal.
It is significant that the announcement of the Haifa port privatization agreement was made at the same time that -during the stopover in Israel on his trip- the President of the United States, Joe Biden, participated together with the Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid , Narendra Modi and Mohammed bin Zayed at a virtual summit of I2U2, a forum for economic and political cooperation launched last year, bringing together Israel, the United States, India and the United Arab Emirates. Israel is already at the moment India’s biggest partner in the security sector, but economic cooperation is also advancing in many other fields.
For his part, Gautam Adani has not failed to embellish the agreement for the acquisition of the port of Haifa with a nationalist streak. In a tweet he recalled the Battle of Haifa in 1918, in which it was the Indian regiments – then in the service of London – who conquered that port, paving the way for the Ottoman defeat.
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