(ANSA) - BELGRADE, MAR 9 - Imec "is such a long-term project that there are no immediate consequences; if anything, there are more reasons to implement it," stated Francesco Maria Talò, the Italian special envoy for Imec (India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor), in response to a query regarding the potential influence of the Gulf War on the project. "We are in a very preliminary phase of vision, of discussion," the diplomat said, referring to Imec, a transport project supported by Washington, Brussels, and New Delhi, among others, that could connect India to Europe via the Middle East and is viewed by many observers as a potential American response to China's Silk Road. According to Talò, who recently attended the Raisina Dialogue economic and political forum in New Delhi, "the situation we're seeing today in the Gulf, with the closure of the Strait of Hormoz, increases the need for other options" in trade routes. "That is, the key word is diversification, and it's now the key word for the entire global economy," he says. (ANSA).