NEW DELHI — India lodged a formal protest with Washington after U.S. strikes on merchant ships off Oman killed three Indian crew members, prompting Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar to call U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio. New Delhi also summoned the U.S. deputy chief of mission in the capital twice in two days to convey its objections.
Jaishankar said in a post on X on June 13 that he had “reiterated India’s strong protest” over the U.S. Navy actions in the Gulf, calling such lethal force against commercial vessels unjustified. The diplomatic escalation follows a series of strikes: on June 10 a Palau-flagged tanker, MT Settebello, was hit and three Indian seafarers were killed; on June 8 the Palau-flagged MT Marivex was struck and 24 Indian crew were airlifted to safety by Omani authorities; and on June 11 a Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker with 20 Indian sailors aboard was also hit, with the crew rescued.
The U.S. State Department has not immediately commented on Jaishankar’s call but previously said it was in direct contact with Indian officials. New Delhi’s shipping ministry noted that India supplies one of the world’s largest seafaring workforces, with over 320,000 active seafarers in 2025, and urged Indians aboard both domestic and foreign-flagged vessels transiting conflict-affected waters to exercise extreme caution.
Separately, India’s navy reported conducting a high-risk operation on June 11 to remove an unexploded missile warhead lodged in a fuel tank of the Marshall Islands-flagged crude tanker MT Olympic Life, which was struck off Oman on May 26 and later reached the port of Kochi. Regional tensions have escalated since Feb. 28, when U.S. and Israeli strikes prompted Iran to restrict traffic through the Strait of Hormuz, a chokepoint for roughly one-fifth of global oil and LNG shipments, while the U.S. has maintained a naval blockade on Iranian ports.