India says no discussions on deploying warships to Strait of Hormuz

Trump said in a social media post that he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, the UK and other countries, which are affected by the “artificial constraint” of Iran’s attempted closing of the Strait of Hormuz, will send warships to the area to keep the waterway “safe and open”. However, there have been no immediate commitments by the countries named by Trump.

When external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal was asked at a media briefing whether the US had approached India to send its warships to the region and New Delhi’s stance on the matter, he replied: “We are aware of this particular matter being discussed by several countries. We have not yet discussed it in a bilateral setting.”

India will continue its discussions with several stakeholders on this matter, Jaiswal said, adding that external affairs minister S Jaishankar had also spoken about it in an interview with Financial Times. Jaishankar said does not have a “blanket arrangement” with Iran for Indian-flagged ships to transit the Strait of Hormuz, though talks with Tehran on the safe passage of Indian vessels were “ongoing” and “yielding results”.