IRIS Dena sinking | India gives security in Indian Ocean, but foreign forces also present there: Jaishankar

NEW DELHI: India is a net security provider in the Indian Ocean, but it does not override the realities of the region, said External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Saturday amid the row over the recent sinking of an Iranian Navy ship by the United States Navy in Sri Lanka's Exclusive Economic Zone.

Jaishankar also said that other nations had deployed military capabilities in the region.

“Please understand the reality of the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia has been in the Indian Ocean for the last five decades. The fact that there are foreign forces based in Djibouti happened in the early first decade of this century. Hambantota came up during this period,” he said at the Raisina Dialogue — a conference on geopolitics and geo-economics — in New Delhi to a question on the US military offensive against the Iranian ship.

Diego Garcia, the largest of the Chagos Islands, has hosted a joint British-American military base since the 1970s. Japan, China, Italy, and the US have military bases in Djibouti.

The Hambantota International Port in southern Sri Lanka has been a major strategic asset for China, which got it on a 99-year lease starting 2017.

India refrained from condemning Israel and the US' missile attack on Iran, which killed the latter's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, and the sinking of IRIS Dena, which was returning after participating in the the Indian Navy-hosted multilateral naval exercise Milan 2026.

The Indian Navy confirmed its participation in the search-and-rescue operations after a US submarine torpedoed IRIS Dena off Galle on Wednesday, but avoided any reference to the US' role in the frigate's sinking.

Jaishankar also confirmed that India had allowed the docking of another Iranian Navy vessel, IRIS Lavan, in Kochi this week.

"We got a message from the Iranian side that one of the ships, which presumably was closest to our borders at that point in time, wanted to come into our port. They were reporting that they were having problems. On March 1, we said – You can come in. It took them a few days to sail in, and then they docked in Kochi," he said.

The Indian Navy approved the request to dock the ship, days before the US torpedoed and sank IRIS Dena. IRIS Lavan docked at Kochi on March 4. The vessel remains there with its 183 crew members currently being accommodated at Indian Navy facilities on humanitarian grounds.

Jaishankar also stressed adherence to the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS).