US Has No Regrets. Indian Sailor Killings Collateral Damage For Them

Updated: Jun 19, 2026 00:35 am IST Published On Jun 18, 2026 21:11 pm IST Last Updated On Jun 19, 2026 00:35 am IST

Published On Jun 18, 2026 21:11 pm IST

Last Updated On Jun 19, 2026 00:35 am IST

Three Indian mariners on a merchant ship off the coast of Iran and Oman are killed by the US Navy, but the US did not think it politically appropriate to express regret at this loss of life. Whatever the circumstances that led to this killing, some words of regret from the US would have been normal. After all, the merchant ship was unarmed and was not posing any military threat to the US warship. The US used military force against it, knowing that civilian casualties could result. Even if there was no deliberate intention to inflict casualties, but "collateral damage" occurred, why not express regret? Is there no moral obligation to condone the death of civilians in a military action, particularly against a non-military target?

What is worse in this case is that India is a comprehensive global strategic partner of the US. Both countries have cooperated for many years to promote maritime security in the Indian Ocean. The two countries regularly hold elaborate naval exercises. Both are members of the Quad, along with Japan and Australia, which has, amongst its several tasks, maritime security in the Indo-Pacific area.

Maritime domain awareness is another major area of cooperation between the two countries. A US officer is stationed in our Information Fusion Centre- Indian Ocean region (IFC-IOR) in Gurugram, which is a maritime security and intelligence sharing hub established by the Indian Navy. It actively collaborates with international partners to monitor shipping traffic and combat threats across the region. India maintains a reciprocal liaison officer in the US Central Command HQs in Florida as part of deepening maritime, counterterrorism, and undersea domain awareness cooperation with the US. The Gulf area falls under the US Central Command and not the US Indo-Pacific Command.

It is, therefore, surprising that with such levels of institutional cooperation, the likelihood of a very large number of........

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