India Denies US Navy Port Access Claims Amidst Iran Conflict, Faces Moral And Strategic Questions Over Sinking Of Iranian Frigate

New Delhi: The Ministry of External Affairs went on social media to strongly refute a claim made that India was allowing the US Navy to use its ports to launch attacks. In a post on X, the MEAFactCheck wrote, “Claims being made on One America News Network, a US-based channel, that Indian ports are being used by the US Navy are fake and false. We caution you against such baseless and fabricated comments.”

The claim was made during an interview with US defence expert and former Colonel Douglas MacGregor on his thoughts on the Iran war. In the interview, Col. MacGregor commented, “All of our bases have been destroyed. Our harbour installations are destroyed. We are actually having to fall back on India and Indian ports, which is less than ideal; that is what the navy says.”

Colonel MacGregor also believes the US Navy may have used an Indian port to strike the IRIS Dena, an Iranian frigate that was believed to have been sailing in international waters before it was struck through a torpedo strike by a US submarine in the Bay of Bengal, where over 80 Iranian sailors were believed to have been killed.

US Defence Secretary Pete Hesgeth confirmed the news in a press briefing, stating, “In the Indian Ocean, an American submarine sunk an Iranian warship that thought it was safe in international waters. Instead, it was sunk by a torpedo—Quiet Death.”

Former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal stated that while he believed India did not host US warships, India did have a moral responsibility to speak up.

“The Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to take part in our Milan exercise. We were the hosts. I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition. It was defenceless. The Iranian naval personnel had paraded before our president,” he said and added. “The US has ignored India’s sensitivities, as the ship was in these waters because of India’s invitation. We are far from politically or militarily responsible for the US attack. Our “responsibility” is at a moral and human plane.”

Under UNCLOS, India’s territorial waters are 12 nautical miles away, whereas the ship was fired at near Sri Lanka, thousands of miles from the Indian coast.

Strategic expert Brahma Chellaney says. “Under the military pacts COMCASA and LEMOA, India and the U.S. share sensitive maritime data. If a U.S. attack submarine used shared data to locate and sink an Iranian frigate that had just departed an Indian port after participating in a multilateral naval exercise, it would represent a foundational breach of the defence partnership.” Apart from denying the fact that the US used Indian ports, the India has not commented on the sinking of the ship, which according to some experts, can constitute a security threat as it brings the realities of the US-Iran war close to its doorstep.