INS Kolkata was on routine deployment, Pakistan vessel conducted in unacceptable manner: MEA

Indian Navy destroyer INS Kolkata was involved in a collision with PNS Hunain in the North Arabian Sea on September 15

THREE DAYS after a frontline warship of the Indian Navy and a Pakistani Navy vessel were involved in a collision in international waters in the North Arabian Sea, Delhi on Friday officially identified the ship as INS Kolkata and said that the Pakistani Naval Ship Hunain conducted itself in an “unacceptable and unprofessional manner at sea” that resulted in the collision

Ministry of External Affairs’ official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Friday said: “Let me reiterate the facts of the matter. INS Kolkata was on a routine deployment in the western Arabian Sea when Pakistani Naval Ship Hunain conducted itself in an unacceptable and unprofessional manner at sea that resulted in a collision.”

“The dangerous overtaking manoeuvre by PNS Hunain was in gross violation of Article 10 of the Agreement between India and Pakistan on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Manoeuvres and Troops Movements of April 1991, which specifies that naval units at sea are not to be within 3 nautical miles of each other. In addition, the Pakistani ship also infringed the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea,” he said.

“The Pakistan side has once again been advised about the need for all military units to observe due care and respect the provisions of the relevant agreements between the two sides in order to prevent any repeat of such incidents,” he said.

The MEA spokesperson said the incident did not cause any major damage to INS Kolkata and she remains at sea.

On Wednesday, India summoned Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires and lodged a strong protest over the incident. Later, Islamabad countered with its own protest.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs summoned the Charge d’Affaires of the Indian High Commission in Islamabad in response to the incident, it said in a statement. It said the Pakistani Navy was undertaking its biennial exercise SEASPARK-26 when the Indian vessel carried out “aggressive maneuvers in dangerously close proximity of Pakistani naval ship, resulting in contact between the two vessels”.

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Islamabad called the incident a “highly provocative and unacceptable action by a vessel of the Indian Navy in Pakistan’s Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ)”.

Responding to this, the MEA spokesperson said on Friday: “We have seen Pakistan’s response to the protest we had lodged. It is the usual prevarication that we expected. We reject the allegations and insinuations contained therein.”

The September 15 incident is said to have taken place about 120 nautical miles from the Gulf of Oman. For several months now, the Indian Navy destroyers and frigates have been deployed on missions in the North Arabian Sea.

Sources said PNS Hunain — an offshore patrol vessel often listed as a Yarmook-class corvette because of its combat suite — closed in on the frontline Indian Navy warship at high speed, “manoeuvring in an unprofessional and unsafe manner, causing a minor collision”.

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Article 10 of the agreement between India and Pakistan on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Manoeuvres and Troops Movements of April 1991states: “The Naval ships and submarines belonging to the other country are not to close less than three Nautical Miles (NMs) from each other so as to avoid any accident while operating in international waters.”

Shubhajit Roy, Diplomatic Editor at The Indian Express, has been a journalist for more than 27 years now. Roy joined The Indian Express in October 2003 and has been reporting and writing explainers and analysis on foreign affairs for about 19 years now. Based in Delhi, he has also led the National government and political bureau at The Indian Express in Delhi — a team of reporters who cover the national government and politics for the newspaper. He has got the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award for Excellence in Journalism ‘2016. He got this award for his coverage of the Holey Bakery attack in Dhaka and its aftermath. He won the Ramnath Goenka Journalism award, 2023, for the second time for his reporting of the Oct 7 attacks on Israel and the war in Gaza. He also got the IIMCAA Award for the Journalist of the Year, 2022, (Jury’s special mention) for his coverage of the fall of Kabul in August 2021 — he was one of the few Indian journalists in Kabul and the only mainstream newspaper to have covered the Taliban’s capture of power in mid-August, 2021. ... Read More