The irony is that the U.S. and India are "Major Defense Partners," conduct joint military exercises and cooperate across the Indo-Pacific. Yet the U.S. Navy has launched missile strikes against commercial tankers in international waters and killed Indian merchant mariners.
The U.S. Navy had direct communications with the crews of the three foreign-flagged commercial tankers and was fully aware of their Indian nationality before launching the strikes that killed three crew members this week.
This echoes March, when the U.S. Navy torpedoed and sank, in India's backyard, an Iranian frigate returning in a non-combat configuration after largely expending its munitions during an India-hosted multilateral naval exercise in which the U.S. also participated.
And just as the U.S. Navy did not attempt to rescue the sailors from the sinking frigate, it likewise did not come to the aid of the surviving Indian crew members aboard the three tankers it struck. The rescue efforts were mounted instead by Omani authorities.
It is noteworthy that the vessels Washington labels part of a "shadow fleet" transporting crude oil are largely linked to China and Russia. Yet since the Trump-ordered naval blockade began on April 13 without any basis in international law, the U.S. military has not struck a single tanker actively bound for, or coming directly from, either China or Russia.
Striking such a vessel would transform a localized naval blockade into a direct geopolitical confrontation with Beijing or Moscow — a line the Trump administration has explicitly avoided crossing. Instead, it has employed kinetic force only against lower-profile vessels, including those carrying Indian crew members.
Taken together, these incidents are a sad commentary on the state of India's foreign policy under the present government.