Anger in India has grown over the Trump administration’s refusal to issue condolences to India, never mind apologize for the June 9 deaths of three Indian sailors in a U.S. Navy attack on an Indian-crewed commercial ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
India’s External Affairs Ministry (EAM) issued two demarches against the U.S. attacks on commercial vessels, the second, on June 12, requiring the U.S. Chargé d’Affaires to come to the ministry personally to receive it. The Ministry called “the use of lethal and deadly force against civilian shipping … unacceptable.” The U.S. diplomat was instructed to “convey India’s strong concerns to its authorities.”
In phone call later that day with EAM Minister S. Jaishankar, .U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded that the U.S. will continue to shoot as it pleases. Rubio “stressed that all commercial vessels should immediately comply with orders from U.S. forces... violations of the U.S. blockade and the illicit transport of Iranian oil will not be tolerated,” the curt State Department readout reported. Jaishankar did not back down, reporting on X that he had “reiterated India’s strong protest at the attacks by the US Navy in the Gulf that killed three Indian mariners. Such lethal actions against commercial shipping are not justified.”
