External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar used India's platform at the G20 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Atlanta to deliver a pointed message about the human and economic costs of the maritime security crisis unfolding in the Strait of Hormuz and beyond. Speaking during the first plenary session hosted by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Jaishankar stated that "military solutions will not work and diplomacy must be given a chance" in addressing global challenges, a formulation that reflected India's broader diplomatic posture amid multiple concurrent conflicts .
The core of Jaishankar's intervention focused on the disproportionate burden borne by developing countries. He stated that the Global South is "disproportionately bearing the consequences of attacks on civilian shipping and seafarers, jeopardising the availability and cost of fuel, food and fertilisers" . This framing positioned maritime security not merely as a great-power concern but as a development and food-security issue affecting some of the world's most vulnerable economies, many of which depend on imported energy and agricultural commodities transiting the Hormuz and Red Sea corridors.
Jaishankar underscored the legal dimension of the crisis, calling for the preservation of freedom of navigation and an end to attacks "within the framework of international law, especially UNCLOS" . He also announced a concrete institutional response: a joint India-Liberia initiative to safeguard seafarers, reflecting the fact that India supplies a substantial share of the world's merchant mariners while Liberia is among the largest flag registries .
The timing of Jaishankar's remarks was inseparable from events on the water. Just days before the G20 meeting, the Panama-flagged tanker MT LOUISE 1, carrying 27 Indian seafarers, was struck by limpet mines in the Strait of Hormuz—the first confirmed use of such explosives against a vessel in that zone since the US-Iran war began in February . A day earlier, the Liberia-flagged VLCC MT ARZANAH, carrying two Indian nationals, was also targeted in a projectile attack . India's Ports, Shipping and Waterways Minister Sarbananda Sonowal confirmed that all 29 Indian seafarers across both vessels were safe with no injuries, but the incidents reinforced the direct stakes for India .
Jaishankar's speech also placed the shipping crisis within a wider critique of the global economic order. He argued that developing economies are being denied their right to industrialise through "the flooding of markets, weaponising supply chains, constricting market access and encouraging market distortions," adding that "this must cease" . He warned that tactical calculations should not lead to overlooking the dangers of terrorism, describing it as a high-risk activity that "has come back to bite even the practitioners" .
The human toll was a somber backdrop to the diplomatic messaging. According to official figures cited in multiple reports, at least 22 Indian nationals, including 14 seafarers, have lost their lives since the conflict in West Asia began in February . This statistic gave India's call for seafarer protection a concrete and urgent justification, elevating the issue from abstract legal principle to a matter of direct national concern.
The G20 meeting itself unfolded amid deep divisions among member states, with a planned family photograph reportedly cancelled after several European delegations refused to participate alongside Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov . US Secretary of State Rubio, in his opening remarks, warned of "a series of interconnected economic and geopolitical crises" threatening global energy and food markets, supply chains, trade, and freedom of navigation itself, and said the G20 "must work together to confront these threats" .
For India, Jaishankar's G20 intervention served multiple purposes: it highlighted the direct threat to Indian seafarers, positioned New Delhi as a voice for the Global South on maritime security, and reinforced India's consistent call for diplomatic rather than military solutions to international disputes. The joint initiative with Liberia provides a concrete follow-up mechanism, though its operational details remain to be elaborated. What remains clear is that India intends to keep the safety of commercial shipping and seafarers on the international agenda as the Hormuz crisis continues to disrupt global trade.