India protests to US after Gulf ship attacks kill three sailors
TLE Desk: India has lodged a strong protest with the United States after American strikes on merchant vessels in the Gulf reportedly killed three Indian sailors, with External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar raising the issue directly with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, reports AFP.
Jaishankar said he spoke with Rubio to convey New Delhi’s concerns over the attacks on commercial shipping in the region.
“I reiterated India’s strong protest at the attacks by the US Navy in the Gulf that killed three Indian mariners. Such lethal actions against commercial shipping are not justified,” Jaishankar said in a post on X early Saturday.
The diplomatic intervention came after India summoned a senior US diplomat in New Delhi for the second time in two days over the incidents.
According to Indian authorities, three Indian sailors were killed on Wednesday when the Palau-flagged tanker MT Settebello was struck off the coast of Oman.
The incident followed a June 8 strike on another Palau-flagged tanker, MT Marivex, from which Omani authorities evacuated 24 Indian crew members.
A third vessel, a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker carrying 20 Indian sailors, was also hit on Thursday. Indian officials said all crew members were rescued.
The Indian Foreign Ministry said US Deputy Chief of Mission Jason Meeks was summoned twice to hear New Delhi’s formal protest.
The US State Department did not immediately comment on the conversation between Jaishankar and Rubio but said earlier that Washington remained in direct contact with the Indian government regarding the incidents.
India is one of the world’s largest suppliers of merchant seafarers, with more than 320,000 active sailors serving on vessels globally, according to official figures.
Amid escalating tensions in Gulf waters, India’s shipping ministry has advised all Indian sailors operating in conflict-affected maritime zones to exercise maximum caution.
Separately, the Indian Navy said it recently conducted a high-risk operation to remove an unexploded missile warhead from the Marshall Islands-flagged tanker MT Olympic Life, which had been struck off the coast of Oman in May before reaching the southern Indian port of Kochi.
The attacks come amid heightened instability around the Strait of Hormuz, a critical global energy shipping route through which roughly one-fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas supplies normally pass.
