India is a net security provider in the Indian Ocean but that “does not override the realities” of the region, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on Saturday.
“It is a region where other countries are present in a maritime capacity,” he added.
The external affairs minister’s comment during a panel discussion at the 2026 Raisina Dialogue event in Delhi was in response to the moderator’s question about the United States military sinking an Iranian warship off the Sri Lankan coast.
On Wednesday, a US Navy submarine sunk Iranian frigate IRIS Dena. The ship was attacked using a torpedo, US Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said.
While more than 80 personnel were killed, 61 were missing and 32 had been rescued by the Sri Lankan Navy. The incident occurred on the fifth day of Israel-US’ war on Iran.
From February 16 to February 25, the warship had attended an International Fleet Review in Vishakhapatnam, along with ships from several other countries.
Iranian Foreign Minister Seyed Abbas Araghchi declared on Thursday that the US would “bitterly regret” the action. He added that the ship was “a guest of India’s Navy” and had been struck without warning.
Retired Indian admirals, former diplomats and geopolitical analysts had described the incident in India’s backyard as a “strategic embarrassment” to the Indian government and a “blow to its regional credibility”.
The term “net security provider”, which Jaishankar used, refers to a country that not only secures its own interests in a region, but also helps maintain stability and safety for others.
Iranian ship docked in Kochi
Jaishankar said on Saturday that India had received a message from Iran that one of its ships, “which presumably was closest to our borders at that point of time, wanted to come into our port”.
“They were reporting that they were having problems,” he said.
The request, which was made on February 28, was approved on March 1. The external affairs minister said that the ship took a “few days to sail in” and docked in Kochi, Kerala.
Jaishankar added: “When they set out and when they came here, the situation was totally different...They were coming in for a fleet review and then they got, in a way, caught on the wrong side of events.”
One of the two other Iranian ships “obviously had a similar situation in Sri Lanka, they took the decision which they did and one of them unfortunately didn’t make it...” Jaishankar said.
“We approached it [the situation] from the point of view of humanity, other than whatever the legal issues were and I think we did the right thing,” he added.
On Thursday, Sri Lanka said it had evacuated the crew from another Iranian Navy ship that made an emergency request to dock. The ship was close to the island nation’s maritime border. A day later, reports said that a third Iranian ship, IRIS Lavan, had docked in Kochi on Wednesday after a request from Tehran citing technical problems.
#WATCH | Raisina Dialogue 2026 | EAM Dr S Jaishankar says, "I too support UNCLOS and international law... We got a message from the Iranian side that one of the ships, which presumably was closest to our borders at that point of time, wanted to come into our port. They were… pic.twitter.com/CujBWJkXIL
— ANI (@ANI) March 7, 2026 ‘The reality of the Indian Ocean’
On criticism that IRIS Dena was sunk in India’s strategic backyard and questions being raised about the country’s role as a net security provider in the region, Jaishankar said that “there are a lot of social media debates going on [about] this...”
“Please understand the reality of the Indian Ocean,” he said. “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 [in Sri Lanka] came up during this period...”
“Any serious question has to take into account what is the ground or the water situation out there,” he added.
The Diego Garcia island, a part of the British Indian Ocean Territory, is located in the centre of the ocean. It has a US military base.
The US and China are among several countries to operate military bases in Djibouti, which is located in the Horn of Africa region.
On Thursday, the Indian Navy said that it had launched search and rescue efforts on receiving information from Sri Lanka about the sinking of IRIS Dena.
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