New Delhi has put more than 4,500 Indian seafarers working in the Persian Gulf under close watch as maritime threats in the region escalate, with the Ministry of External Affairs confirming that 163 of them are aboard 12 cargo ships currently transiting the Gulf.

MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said six of these vessels are India-flagged commercial ships, while the other six are foreign-flagged cargo carriers transporting goods to India, all operating west of the Strait of Hormuz.

Beyond these 12 ships, thousands of other Indian nationals are employed on a wide range of commercial vessels plying the wider Persian Gulf area, making the safety of Indian crews a high-priority consular and security concern.

The Ministry of Shipping is tracking the movement of these vessels in real time, coordinating with Indian embassies, local authorities and other stakeholders to ensure the welfare of the crews and to intervene swiftly if required.

Jaiswal stressed that New Delhi remains fully committed to protecting its seafaring community abroad, with round-the-clock monitoring and contingency support mechanisms in place for any emergency.

The advisory comes amid a sharp rise in attacks on merchant shipping across key global chokepoints, including the Persian Gulf, the Red Sea and the Black Sea, where commercial vessels and their crews have been repeatedly targeted in recent months.

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar flagged the issue at the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly, condemning assaults on commercial shipping as "completely unacceptable" and confirming that Indian seafarers have been among those killed.

"New challenges in the maritime domain have added to longstanding ones on land," Jaishankar said, citing attacks from the Gulf to the Red Sea and Black Sea that have claimed Indian lives along with those of other nationalities.

In response, India has teamed up with Liberia and 23 other countries to form the Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers, a coalition aimed at rallying global opinion and action to protect civilian shipping.

Jaishankar underlined that strict adherence to international law must be central to any effort to secure sea lanes, calling for immediate restraint and de-escalation to safeguard crews and keep energy and trade flows uninterrupted.

Officials have pointed out that more than 15 Indian seafarers have been killed and four remain missing in West Asia and the Black Sea since February, with specific cases such as the killing of an Indian chief officer on MV OMORFI on 18 July and the deaths of four Indians on MV GOLDEN LEO off Odessa cited at the UN.

With India a major supplier of maritime manpower and Liberia home to the largest ship registry by tonnage, the new grouping seeks to bring together ship-owning nations, flag states and seafarer-source countries to address what has become a systemic threat to global commerce and human life at sea.

ANI