Misri Says India Backs Hormuz Missions In Principle But Will Not Join An Active Conflict
India supports, in principle, the multinational efforts led by France and the United Kingdom to make shipping safe again through the Strait of Hormuz. But it will commit its own capabilities only once the fighting is over, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri said recently
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| Image Via: @VikramMisri on X |
Why this matters
The Gulf region sits on two of the world’s most important maritime chokepoints. The Strait of Hormuz links the Gulf to the open ocean. The Bab el-Mandeb connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden. Large volumes of oil, gas, fertiliser and container cargo pass through both.
The French Rear Admiral who commands French forces in the Indian Ocean told the session that commercial traffic through Hormuz had “dramatically collapsed” since the end of February. It is only partly restored eight months later. Before the crisis, he said, the strait also carried nearly a third of the world’s traded fertilisers. Seafarers have been killed, and the effects have spread to energy prices, insurance premiums, food security and supply chains as far away as Europe and Africa.
India’s case: costs falling on those not at war
Misri said many countries had assumed that the great arteries of commerce would stay open even in times of tension, that essential cargo would be shielded from political disputes, and that international law would keep conduct at sea predictable. “Unfortunately, these assumptions are under strain,” he said.
He described what that means for ordinary people in a developing economy like India. Higher prices for crude oil, LNG and LPG feed into transport, electricity, fertiliser and household budgets. “For the fisherman, the small trader and the family dependent on affordable energy, maritime insecurity is a question of livelihood,” he said.
He pointed out that the people who pay for these disruptions are often not party to the conflict at all. West Asia, he noted, is a vital source of energy for India, a major trading partner and home to millions of Indians.
Misri gave particular attention to merchant seafarers. He called them civilians doing legitimate work who now face attack, detention, abandonment and death. India is a major source of the world’s maritime workforce. This year it joined Liberia, the world’s largest shipping registry, to launch a Group of Friends at the United Nations on the safety and security of shipping and seafarers.
He warned against weakening the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS), the treaty that sets the rules for the world’s oceans. Unilateral actions and selective readings of it, he said, erode trust in rules that are hard to rebuild once broken. Naval power has a role, he added, but it “cannot substitute for political solutions to political problems.”
India’s five-pillar approach
Misri set out how India puts this approach into practice:
- Information sharing: India’s Information Fusion Centre for the Indian Ocean Region in Gurugram, which hosts officers from partner countries, tracks suspicious vessels, piracy and trafficking.
- Training: India trains partner forces in boarding operations, law enforcement, search and rescue, and pollution response.
- Equipment: India supplies patrol vessels and surveillance systems to countries with large sea zones but limited means to watch them.
- Operational coordination: the Indian Navy and Coast Guard carry out joint patrols, exercises and anti-piracy work.
- Crisis communication: clear public messaging during a crisis counters misinformation that can unsettle seafarers and shippers.
He placed this within India’s SAGAR vision from 2015, now broadened under MAHASAGAR, and India’s current chairmanship of the Indian Ocean Rim Association. Security arrangements that deepen divisions, he said, “will not prove durable.”
What Misri said in the question round
Asked whether India might mediate between Iran and the United States, Misri said India was ready to play a part if there was space for it and real value to add. A questioner raised the deaths of Indian seafarers in Iranian attacks. Misri said Indian sailors had come under attack from many actors, not only Iranian ones, and that India had made its position clear whoever was responsible.
He said security was beginning to be added to the existing India–UAE–France trilateral. India had taken part in the political talks behind both the UK and French initiatives on Gulf shipping. On what success would look like a year from now, he named two measures: predictable, safe seaborne commerce, and a return to diplomacy. Before the crisis began, he noted, the parties concerned had been talking.
He also said BRICS is “not really” a defence cooperation grouping at this stage. The maritime issue did shape the declaration at the grouping’s recent summit, he added.
Other voices: law, geography and too few ships
Saudi Arabia’s Deputy Chief of the General Staff, a Vice Admiral, cited Houthi attacks on commercial shipping since 2023 and the confusion over passage through Hormuz. He said Riyadh had launched an initiative in July 2026 to build a multilateral defence alliance with 14 states. “Force cannot replace the law,” he said, and he called for straits never to be used as a weapon or a means of pressure.
Singapore’s Senior Minister of State for Defence, Zaqy Mohamad, warned that countries risk accepting insecurity, and the rising costs that come with it, as simply the cost of doing business. The fact that trade keeps adapting, he argued, should not be mistaken for security. He said a country’s geography must not become an instrument of leverage. That concern applies directly to Singapore, which sits on the Straits of Malacca and Singapore. He also suggested using underwater drones to patrol undersea cables when there are not enough people to do it.
The French commander said France is not a party to the conflict and that its posture is strictly defensive. The Franco-British initiative for Hormuz, he said, was declared ready to operate in September. More than 15 countries from Europe, North America, the Indo-Pacific and the Gulf are represented on its staff. Ships will deploy only once the threat is manageable and the countries of the region broadly agree. His biggest operational problem, he said, was having “not so many ships” for all the tasks.
“Maritime security has reached an inflection point,” he said. The job now is to stop it from becoming “a breaking point.”