US Strikes On Merchant Ship: Hellfire Missiles And Diplomatic Whispers
· Free Press Journal
While most of the world waits for former US President Donald Trump to announce the final end to hostilities he began with Iran, disjointing the world in the process, New Delhi is particularly anxious for it to happen. Trump is nearing a conclusion, but the faster it occurs, the less India has to explicitly call out the Americans for attacks on ships linked to India.
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Diplomatic response and official restraint
The government has opted for the expedient route of summoning the US Chargé d’Affaires, Jason Meeks, rather than directly reprimanding Ambassador Sergio Gor. This measured approach reflects classic diplomatic protocol. India’s Ministry of External Affairs has tasked Additional Secretary Nagaraj Naidu with the confrontation, rather than the Foreign Secretary, highlighting the cautious posture.
Nowhere in the official statement has New Delhi named the US formally, reserving the controlled rhetoric for verbal comments from spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal, who stated that the strikes "came from the US Navy". The level of official outrage appears inversely proportional to the number of Indian sailors operating in the perilous international shipping lanes. Currently, over 18,000 Indian mariners are in the West Asian theatre, with 562 seafarers stranded on 13 Indian-flagged vessels near the Strait of Hormuz.
Maritime irony and operational onslaught
It is ironic for India to be a key member of an alliance like the Quad, which talks about securing oceans, yet suffer attacks from American Hellfire missiles in the Gulf. The four-day operational onslaught exposes contradictions in maritime partnerships.
Between June 8 and June 11, several ships were affected: the Palau-flagged M/T Marivex was disabled, the M/T Settebello was struck, and the Guinea-Bissau-flagged M/T Jalveer was hit by air-launched precision munitions. The M/T Settebello owners reported that no warnings were given by US forces before precision munitions damaged the engine room, contradicting US Central Command’s claims of compliance.
Human toll and double standards
The attacks resulted in the deaths of deck cadet Aditya Sharma, fitter Shivanand Chaurasiya, and chief engineer Suresh Patnala. Similar restraint is observed when Iran targets vessels linked to India, such as the March drone strikes that killed crewmen on the Skylight and MKD Vyom. In these cases, condemnation is muted, demonstrating that with great power comes great silence.