Speaking at the Raisina Dialogue 2026, External Affairs Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar highlighted the risks faced by Indian merchant mariners, stressing that “Indians are a very large segment of people who man merchant ships,” and that recent attacks on tankers have already resulted in Indian fatalities. Emphasising that India’s response to the crisis must account for both maritime safety and the well‑being of the “nine to ten million” Indians living in the Gulf, Jaishankar underscored that protecting merchant shipping is not just a strategic concern but a deeply human one, driven by the need to safeguard Indian lives, economic interests, and energy security.
“Indians are a very large segment of people who man merchant ships so every time there is an attack on a tanker on vessels carrying, it is very likely that all or part of that vessel is actually manned by Indians,” he said.
He added that there’s got to be adequate recognition..about the interests of Indians, the merchant mariners, and what “we could be doing to secure them or to safeguard them. And a lot of our approach to the crisis is actually driven by the fact that we have a community of nine to 10 million people residing in the Gulf.”
He said that for the last two years, when the Houthis were busy attacking shipping, “we had actually deployed our navy in the northern Arabian Sea. Again, in line with our independent political stance, we know the Americans had an operation called Prosperity Guardian. We worked independently of it.”
He further added that, “we coordinated with what the US was doing, but we coordinated with Europe, we coordinated with some of the regional navies. So, you know, at the end of the day a lot of this comes down, countries that are in it, they have an interest, they have people, they have economic or energy concerns out there, and I think it’s natural that our policies eventually will take all of that into account and I just felt that the merchant marine path has not really got the prominence.”
The comments were made against the backdrop of another major incident in the region, the sinking of the Iranian vessel IRIS Dena. The ship, which had recently been present in the area after participating in naval engagements in India, was reportedly brought down by the United States in international waters south of Sri Lanka
