India deeply concerned about blockades in Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb, says govt.
The Ministry of External Affairs stated that India is deeply concerned about blockade-like conditions affecting both the Strait of Hormuz and the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, the two chokepoints bracketing the Arabian Sea/Red Sea shipping corridor.
Officials confirmed that oil supplies from the Red Sea region have not been affected so far despite the tensions.
Oman is assisting search-and-rescue operations for an Indian seafarer still missing after an attack on an oil tanker; of the vessel's Indian crew, the majority were rescued while one person remained unaccounted for.
The Ministry reiterated calls for immediate de-escalation and a return to dialogue and diplomacy, and stated that free and safe navigation through international waterways must be restored.
The incident adds to a pattern of attacks on commercial shipping and tankers in the wider Gulf/Red Sea region amid an ongoing regional conflict.
The Strait of Hormuz: Geography and Global Oil Significance
The Strait of Hormuz lies between Iran to the north and Oman (via its Musandam exclave) to the south, connecting the Persian Gulf to the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea. At its narrowest, it is about 33-39 km wide, with navigable shipping lanes only a few kilometres across in each direction. It is the world's single most important oil-transit chokepoint.
The government's concern spans both ends of India's Gulf-to-Red-Sea supply corridor — Hormuz, through which a large share of India's crude oil imports transit, and Bab-el-Mandeb, the gateway to the Suez route for India's Europe-bound trade — meaning simultaneous instability at both chokepoints compounds risk for India's energy security and trade far more than a disruption at either alone.
Dual Chokepoint Risk: Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb Together
Global maritime trade depends on a small number of narrow "chokepoints" — straits or canals where shipping lanes converge and where blockage, mining, or attacks can force costly rerouting. The Strait of Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb are the two chokepoints bookending the Arabian Peninsula, together controlling almost all maritime traffic moving between the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea/Suez Canal, and the wider Indian Ocean.
Key Details
- If both chokepoints are simultaneously disrupted, ships must reroute around the Cape of Good Hope (southern Africa), adding roughly 6,000-10,000 nautical miles and 10-14 days of transit time depending on origin/destination, sharply raising freight and insurance costs.
- Other globally significant maritime chokepoints include the Strait of Malacca (Indian Ocean-Pacific link, critical for India's Look/Act East trade) and the Suez and Panama Canals.
- Reported disruption tools include mine-laying, missile/drone strikes on tankers, and declared "no-passage" warnings by a state or non-state actor controlling adjoining coastline.
By naming both straits together, the government's statement signals a compounded, corridor-wide risk rather than an isolated local incident, since Hormuz-origin crude and Bab-el-Mandeb/Suez-route trade together account for a large share of India's total seaborne energy and merchandise trade.
Indian Seafarers and India's Maritime Workforce
India is the world's second-largest supplier of seafarers after the Philippines, contributing over 12% of the global maritime workforce as of 2026 — a sharp rise from about 5% in 2015. Indian seafarers serve aboard vessels of many flag states (the attacked tanker in this case was foreign-flagged but Indian-crewed), which is why incidents far from Indian territorial waters still trigger direct Indian government involvement.
Key Details
- India supplies both officers (over 13% of the global officer workforce) and ratings (over 11% of the global ratings workforce), per recent Directorate General of Shipping data.
- The government has set a "Mission" target to raise India's share of the global seafaring workforce toward 20% by the early 2030s.
- Consular/diplomatic protection of Indian nationals abroad, including seafarers on foreign-flagged vessels, is coordinated by the Ministry of External Affairs through Indian missions (in this case, the Indian Embassy in Oman) in cooperation with host-country authorities.
- The Indian Navy's Operation Sankalp maintains a standing presence in the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, and Gulf of Aden to escort Indian-flagged/crewed vessels and conduct search-and-rescue and anti-piracy operations.
The scale of India's seafaring workforce explains why a tanker attack anywhere along the Hormuz-Red Sea corridor routinely involves Indian nationals, making maritime security in these chokepoints a direct citizen-safety issue for India, not merely a trade or energy-security concern.
Freedom of Navigation and UNCLOS
The 1982 UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) codifies navigational rights through international straits used for international navigation, distinguishing "transit passage" (a stronger right applicable to strategic straits like Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb, allowing continuous and expeditious transit including for warships and aircraft overflight) from the more restrictive "innocent passage" regime applicable to territorial seas generally.
The government's explicit invocation of "blockades" and its call to restore "free and safe navigation" frames the Hormuz/Bab-el-Mandeb situation in UNCLOS terms, positioning India as a stakeholder defending the international legal order governing strait passage rather than taking sides in the underlying regional conflict.
- Strait of Hormuz: approx. 33-39 km wide at its narrowest, between Iran and Oman; carries an estimated one-fifth to one-quarter of global oil consumption and about a quarter of globally traded seaborne oil.
- China, India, Japan, and South Korea are the largest recipients of crude oil transiting the Strait of Hormuz.
- Bab-el-Mandeb Strait: approx. 32 km wide, between Yemen and Djibouti/Eritrea; carries an estimated 10-12% of global seaborne trade.
- India: world's second-largest seafarer-supplying nation, contributing over 12% of the global maritime workforce (2026), up from about 5% in 2015; national target to reach 20%.
- UNCLOS: adopted 1982; ratified by India in 1995; governs "transit passage" through international straits such as Hormuz and Bab-el-Mandeb.
- Indian Navy's Operation Sankalp provides maritime security presence across the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, and Gulf of Aden.