Attacks on commercial shipping in Gulf, Red Sea simply indefensible: Jaishankar as India and Liberia announce ‘group of friends’
At the 81st session of the UN General Assembly's High-Level Week in New York, the External Affairs Minister stated that attacks on commercial shipping in the Gulf and the Red Sea are "indefensible" and said such attacks and loss of life "must stop."
India and Liberia jointly launched the "Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers," bringing together countries to focus international attention on maritime crew safety.
Recent incidents involving Indian seafarers were cited, including attacks on the vessels MV Cape Dao (Gulf of Oman), El Gaia (Strait of Hormuz), MV Omorfi (Black Sea) and MV Golden Leo, resulting in deaths, a missing crew member, and other casualties.
Concerns raised extended beyond physical attacks to prolonged crew confinement, delayed repatriation, and the psychological toll on merchant mariners.
In a separate press interaction at the UN, the External Affairs Minister responded to a question on cross-border terrorism from a journalist representing Pakistani media, reiterating India's long-standing position that terrorist groups operate from Pakistani territory.
The "Group of Friends" Mechanism in UN Diplomacy
A "Group of Friends" is an informal coalition of UN member states formed to support a mediation process, peace initiative, or thematic cause, operating outside the formal treaty architecture of the UN Charter. The mechanism emerged from UN practice in the late 1980s as a flexible tool for Secretaries-General and member states to mobilise concentrated political attention on issues that lack a dedicated Charter body.
Key Details
- Groups of Friends have no basis in Chapter VI or Chapter VII of the UN Charter; they function purely through voluntary coordination among like-minded states.
- India has used this mechanism before: in December 2022, during its UN Security Council presidency, India launched the "Group of Friends for Accountability of Crimes Against Peacekeepers" with Bangladesh, Egypt, France, Morocco and Nepal as co-chairs.
- Other thematic examples include the Group of Friends of Water and the Group of Friends on Climate and Security.
The India-Liberia shipping-safety group follows this established diplomatic template — using an informal coalition rather than a UN Security Council resolution or a new treaty to draw sustained multilateral attention to attacks on seafarers.
The Red Sea/Gulf Shipping Crisis and International Naval Responses
Commercial shipping through the Red Sea (via the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait) and the Gulf region has faced repeated attacks since late 2023, disrupting a route that normally carries a significant share of global trade transiting the Suez Canal, and prompting international naval deployments.
Key Details
- Attacks on merchant vessels escalated from November 2023 onward, forcing many shipping lines to reroute around the Cape of Good Hope instead of the Suez Canal, raising freight costs and transit times.
- Multilateral naval responses include the US-led Operation Prosperity Guardian and the EU's Operation Aspides, both aimed at protecting merchant shipping in the Red Sea.
- India has not joined either coalition but conducts independent deployments; overlapping tensions from the Iran-related regional conflict in 2026 have further affected shipping through the Strait of Hormuz.
The vessels named in the External Affairs Minister's remarks (MV Cape Dao, El Gaia, MV Omorfi, MV Golden Leo) reflect the geographic spread of this crisis — from the Gulf of Oman and Strait of Hormuz to the Black Sea — showing that Indian seafarers are exposed across multiple, simultaneous maritime flashpoints, not just the Red Sea.
India's Independent Naval Response: Operation Sankalp
Operation Sankalp is the Indian Navy's mission to secure the maritime domain across the Gulf of Aden, Red Sea, Arabian Sea, Strait of Hormuz and wider Indian Ocean, focused on protecting commercial shipping, countering piracy, and safeguarding India's energy and trade sea lines of communication.
Key Details
- Originally launched in 2019 to escort Indian-flagged vessels through the Strait of Hormuz, Operation Sankalp was re-activated on December 14, 2023 in response to the Red Sea crisis and a spike in piracy incidents.
- In its highest-profile action, an Indian Air Force C-17 aircraft, coordinating with INS Kolkata, para-dropped combat boats and Marine Commandos (MARCOS) on March 16, 2024 to rescue 17 crew members of the hijacked vessel MV Ruen from Somali pirates.
- Indian Navy stealth destroyers and frigates — including INS Kolkata, INS Kochi, INS Mormugao, INS Chennai, INS Visakhapatnam and INS Surat — have been deployed under the operation.
Operation Sankalp is the operational counterpart to the diplomatic initiative — while the Group of Friends builds international political attention and coordination, the Indian Navy independently protects vessels and seafarers at sea in the same waters where the cited incidents occurred.
India and Liberia's Roles in Global Shipping — Seafarer Supply and Flag Registry
The India-Liberia pairing for this initiative reflects each country's distinct but complementary position in the global shipping industry — India as a leading source of maritime labour, and Liberia as the world's largest ship registry by tonnage.
Key Details
- India accounts for roughly 12% of the world's seafaring workforce, ranking as the second-largest seafarer-supplying nation after the Philippines, and ahead of China, Russia and Indonesia.
- Liberia is currently the world's largest open ship registry by gross tonnage, with over 300 million gross tons and roughly 17% of registered global tonnage, having overtaken Panama for the top position in 2023.
- A "flag registry" (or open registry/"flag of convenience") allows a ship owned by nationals of one country to be registered under another country's flag, subject to that flag state's regulatory and safety regime under the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS) and International Maritime Organization (IMO) conventions.
India (labour supply) and Liberia (registry/flag state) together represent two structurally different but equally critical stakes in global shipping safety, which is the stated rationale for co-leading the new Group of Friends.
- Forum: 81st Session of the UN General Assembly, High-Level Week, September 2026
- New mechanism: "Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers" (India-Liberia co-led)
- Cited incidents: MV Cape Dao (Gulf of Oman), El Gaia (Strait of Hormuz), MV Omorfi (Black Sea), MV Golden Leo (after leaving Odessa)
- India's precedent: Group of Friends for Accountability of Crimes Against Peacekeepers, launched December 2022 during India's UNSC presidency
- India's global seafarer share: approximately 12% (2nd largest supplier after the Philippines)
- Liberia's global ship-registry share: approximately 17% of world tonnage (largest registry, over 300 million gross tons), having overtaken Panama in 2023
- Indian Navy's Operation Sankalp re-activated: December 14, 2023
- MV Ruen hostage rescue by Indian Navy/MARCOS: March 16, 2024
- Red Sea shipping disruption ongoing since: November 2023