‘Threatens freedom of navigation through Bab-el-Mandeb’: India condemns Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia
India strongly condemned Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabian territory, stating that such attacks are unacceptable and undermine regional stability.
The Ministry of External Affairs stated that the strikes threaten freedom of navigation through the Bab-el-Mandeb strait, a key global shipping route.
The matter was raised during a bilateral meeting between India's and Saudi Arabia's foreign ministers on the sidelines of the BRICS Summit hosted in New Delhi.
India reiterated that attacks on sovereign nations and critical infrastructure are unacceptable and called for an immediate return to peace and stability in the region.
The New Delhi Declaration issued at the conclusion of the BRICS Summit did not specifically name the Red Sea, Bab-el-Mandeb, Yemen, or the Houthis, reflecting divergent positions among BRICS members on the issue.
Bab-el-Mandeb Strait: Geography and Strategic Significance
The Bab-el-Mandeb ("Gate of Tears") is a narrow strait, roughly 32 km wide at its narrowest, separating Yemen on the Arabian Peninsula from Djibouti and Eritrea on the Horn of Africa. It connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden and, through the Gulf of Aden, to the Arabian Sea and Indian Ocean, making it the southern gateway to the Suez Canal route between Asia and Europe.
India's statement that Houthi strikes on Saudi Arabia "threaten freedom of navigation through Bab-el-Mandeb" ties a specific attack to the strait's role as an indispensable global trade artery — any instability near or within the strait raises costs and risks for India's own energy imports and export trade with Europe, which predominantly transits this route.
India's West Asia Policy and Energy-Security Interests
India's West Asia (Gulf) policy rests on three pillars: energy security (the Gulf and adjoining Red Sea/Arabian Sea routes carry the bulk of India's crude oil and LNG imports), the welfare of the large Indian diaspora and workforce in Gulf countries, and trade/strategic partnerships pursued through bilateral and plurilateral platforms. India maintains a policy of engaging all regional actors without taking sides in intra-regional rivalries.
Key Details
- India has designated "Strategic Partnerships" with Gulf states including Saudi Arabia (2019) and the UAE, covering energy, trade, defence, and security cooperation.
- The India Middle East Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC), announced at the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi, envisages rail and shipping links connecting India through the Gulf and Israel to Europe — a route sensitive to instability in chokepoints such as Bab-el-Mandeb and the wider Red Sea.
- The Indian Navy's Operation Sankalp (launched 2019, expanded during subsequent Gulf/Red Sea crises) provides maritime security escort and anti-piracy presence for Indian-flagged and Indian-crewed vessels transiting the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, and Gulf of Aden.
- India has consistently called for "immediate de-escalation" and resolution "through dialogue and diplomacy" in West Asian conflicts, a position rooted in its non-aligned diplomatic tradition and its stakes as a major energy importer.
India's condemnation of the Houthi strikes and its direct outreach to Saudi Arabia's foreign minister illustrate this energy-security-driven West Asia policy in action, using bilateral diplomacy on the margins of a multilateral summit (BRICS) to register concern outside the summit's own consensus-bound declaration.
BRICS as a Platform for Bilateral Diplomacy
Multilateral summits such as BRICS routinely serve a dual function: producing a collective, consensus-based outcome document (here, the New Delhi Declaration), while also providing a venue for bilateral meetings between individual member/partner-country delegations on issues that may not achieve full multilateral consensus.
Key Details
- BRICS operates by consensus; a joint declaration requires agreement from all full members, meaning contentious regional issues (such as West Asia) are often addressed in vaguer or omitted language if members hold divergent positions.
- Saudi Arabia has participated in BRICS activities since 2024 and features among the bloc's expanded membership, alongside Egypt, Ethiopia, Iran, UAE, and Indonesia (joined January 2025).
- Sidelines/bilateral meetings at multilateral summits allow countries to raise specific concerns (such as an attack on a third country) that the summit's own consensus text may not capture.
The India-Saudi Arabia meeting on the Houthi strikes, conducted on the margins of the BRICS Summit, is a standard example of using a multilateral gathering's sidelines for bilateral diplomacy on an issue where the bloc's own joint declaration stayed silent.
- Bab-el-Mandeb Strait: approx. 32 km wide at its narrowest point, between Yemen and Djibouti/Eritrea; connects the Red Sea to the Gulf of Aden.
- Estimated to carry roughly 10-12% of global seaborne trade and around 8-11% of global maritime oil trade.
- Third-busiest global oil chokepoint after the Strait of Hormuz and the Strait of Malacca.
- UNCLOS (1982) governs "transit passage" rights through international straits, underpinning the "freedom of navigation" principle India invoked.
- Saudi Arabia holds a "Strategic Partnership" with India (established 2019); India's IMEC corridor initiative (announced at the 2023 G20 New Delhi Summit) runs through the Gulf region.
- Indian Navy's Operation Sankalp provides maritime security presence in the Strait of Hormuz, Gulf of Oman, and Gulf of Aden.