'Keeping eye on situation': India on Red Sea theatre

The ministry of external affairs on Thursday said that India is deeply concerned about the situation unfolding in the Red Sea and parts of the Arabian Sea as attacks by Houthi rebels on commercial vessels in the region impact not only the country's economic interests but of others too.

- Rahul Singh

"Whatever is happening there impacts not just us but the economic interests and several other interests of so many people across the world. We are closely monitoring the situation," MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said in response to a question during a weekly press briefing.

His comments came on a day India's guided missile destroyer INS Visakhapatnam swiftly responded to a distress call made by Marshall Islands-flagged merchant vessel Genco Picardy that came under a drone attack in the Gulf of Aden. The incident is the latest in a series of drone and pirate attacks on merchant vessels in the region.

The situation in the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, the violence there and the destabilised nature of things there were discussed by external affairs minister S Jaishankar with his Iranian counterpart Hossein Amir-Abdollahian in Tehran on January 15, he said.