By R Anil Kumar
New York/Bengaluru, Sep 25, 2026. India and Liberia have brought together a group of countries to address attacks on commercial shipping and strengthen the safety and security of seafarers, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said on September 25.
Addressing the inaugural meeting of the ‘Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers’ on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly, Jaishankar highlighted a series of recent attacks on commercial vessels that have resulted in the deaths and disappearance of Indian sailors.
He said that two days earlier, the Antigua and Barbuda-flagged bulk carrier MV Cape Dove was attacked in the Gulf of Oman, killing an Indian sailor. Ten days earlier, the Panama-flagged oil tanker El Gaya was struck in the Strait of Hormuz, resulting in an Indian crew member going missing.
“These, regrettably, are no longer exceptional occurrences,” Jaishankar said.
He also cited two attacks in the Black Sea. The chief officer of MV Omorfi, an Indian national, was killed when the vessel was hit in Russian territorial waters on July 18, while four Indian seafarers died the following day after MV Golden Leo was struck after departing from Odesa.
Jaishankar said the victims of such attacks were not limited to Indian nationals, with seafarers from other countries also becoming casualties this year.
“From the Black Sea to the Red Sea to the Gulf, attacks on civilian shipping have become a growing cause of concern,” he said. “These actions that disrupt maritime commerce and cost innocent lives are simply indefensible.”
He called for greater international cooperation to deter such attacks, noting that commercial shipping and mariners had faced repeated threats in the Gulf, the Red Sea and adjoining waters in recent months.
The minister underlined the wider implications for global trade, saying international commerce was worth more than USD 140 billion a day and that oceans carried more than 80 per cent of it. Nearly two million seafarers serve aboard merchant fleets worldwide, he said.
Seafarers also face prolonged confinement aboard ships, delays in crew changes and returning home, separation from their families and psychological distress, Jaishankar said, stressing the need for stronger cooperation to implement existing international and regional protections.
He said a vessel’s flag state and the nationalities of its crew members were often different, making coordinated action by governments particularly important. India is a major source of seafarers, while Liberia has the world’s largest shipping registry.
India and Liberia proposed the Group of Friends as a forum for countries involved in shipping, vessel registration and crewing.
Jaishankar said its members included major ship-owning nations, countries with large shipping registries and nations that supply a significant share of the world’s seafarers.
He invited members to help shape the group’s agenda and said its procedures and terms of reference could be finalised through consultations. He also thanked the participating countries and sought their views on the group’s future work.
The initiative follows concerns raised by India at the BRICS summit hosted by New Delhi two weeks ago.
Jaishankar said Prime Minister Narendra Modi had proposed a seafarers’ emergency support network linking maritime authorities and embassies. Such a mechanism could facilitate distress alerts, medical assistance, communication with families and evacuations when required.
India has also raised the issue of maritime safety at the United Nations.
Jaishankar said India had co-organised a UN Security Council meeting with Greece and the Philippines in November last year on protecting seafarers and participated in an April 2026 debate on the safety of waterways.
The new group, he said, would bring these concerns into a dedicated forum focused on the safety of shipping and the people working aboard commercial vessels.
