New Delhi: India plans to raise its concerns over the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz and call for unimpeded passage through it at the G7 summit next week, the Ministry of External Affairs said Thursday.
This comes a day after New Delhi summoned the US Charge d’Affaires Jason Meeks following Wednesday’s attack on the oil tanker Settebello off the Oman coast, in which three Indian crew members were killed.
“We want, and we have urged that there be unimpeded navigation through the Strait of Hormuz. We will put our concerns out when the discussion does come up (at G7),” Randhir Jaiswal, spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs said at a special briefing ahead of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visits to France and Slovakia.
Jaiswal added that India hopes US military strikes against commercial ships would come to an “immediate halt”, adding that the government will work for the safety of roughly 3,50,000 Indian seafarers.
The comments come as Modi is set to head to France for the G7 summit, which US President Donald Trump is also set to attend. The two leaders are likely to hold a bilateral meeting on the margins of the summit.
The US navy has attacked three commercial vessels in the last three days off the coast of Oman. The ships, two of which were sanctioned by the US, were all crewed by Indians. The US has maintained that the ships were non-compliant with its orders and one of them attempted to reach an Iranian port despite the ongoing American naval blockade.
A total of 68 Indian seafarers were on board the three tankers that were hit on 8, 10 and 11 June, respectively.
The G7 summit chaired by French President Emmanuel Macron this year also has a session on the West Asia conflict, with leaders from the UAE, Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Qatar invited.
India is likely to attend the session as well, according to diplomatic sources. India is not a member of the G7, which was formed in 1975 and includes the then largest global economies such as the US, the UK, France, Japan, Italy, Canada and Germany.
“Under the French presidency it is important to refocus the dialogue on the global economic agenda…India has been a part of all six ministerial tracks of the summit under the French presidency,” said a diplomatic source.
This is the first time ndia has been included in all the pre-summit discussions. External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar had also attended the G7 foreign ministers meeting earlier this year.
For Macron, the summit comes at a point when there exists a rupture in the transatlantic relationship.
Trump has sought to acquire European territory—Greenland—while the European members of the G7 have all uniformly rejected supporting the American war on Iran.
“The world will never be the same after the war, as it was before the war,” said the diplomatic source. Modi’s attendance at the G7 summit began at the last one chaired by France in Biarritz in 2019.
“India’s participation in all ministerial tracks of the G7 under a French presidency indicates our (France’s) level of trust in New Delhi. We believe we can speak about anything with India,” the source added.
Modi’s itinerary
India has been invited to every summit since then. Modi departs for France on 13 June. In the French city of Nice, he will hold a bilateral meeting with Macron, as well as launch Bharat Innovate, a platform to showcase India’s innovation in different sectors.
From Nice, Modi travels to Bratislava. His state visit to Slovakia is the first ever by an Indian Prime Minister. Following Bratislava, he will travel to Evian for the G7 summit, before travelling to Paris on 18 June. He will return to New Delhi from Paris.
The bilateral-leg of the visits to France and Slovakia will focus on deepening the defence and technological partnership with both Paris and Bratislava.
Diplomatic sources pointed to France’s long-standing defence relationship with India, highlighting that “substantive discussions” are ongoing over the purchase of 114 Rafale fighter jets.
“We are ready to ‘Make in India’ and integrate locally developed weapons systems…I am sure a consensus will be reached by both sides for the deal to proceed forward,” one source said.
While no major defence announcements are expected, the two leaders are set to discuss all aspects of the partnership. At least 12 agreements are expected to be announced focusing on innovation, health and education.
France has welcomed the SHANTI (Sustainable Harnessing and Advancement of Nuclear Energy for Transforming India) Act, said the diplomatic source, with France’s EDF (Électricité de France), the electric utility company, in touch with a number of Indian private companies for cooperation in the civil nuclear sector.
Similarly in Slovakia, India is expected to deepen its defence partnership, with a few memorandum of understandings expected to be announced following the visit, said Sibi George, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs at the special briefing.
(Edited by Gitanjali Das)
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