Oil Tanker With 22 Indian Seafarers Becomes Target Of Drone Attack At Sharjah Anchorage

A crude oil tanker, MT GEM No.2, sailing under the flag of Panama with 22 Indian crew members, became the target of a drone attack at the Sharjah Anchorage in the Arabian Gulf, UAE.

The Indian Government also tweeted about the incident on social media platform X, informing that all seafarers are safe and that they were monitoring the situation and remained in contact with the ship management company.

In the last few weeks, ship attacks in the Gulf region and the Black Sea have increased manifold, which has prompted India and other countries to call for stronger cooperation with countries around the world to protect shipping and the lives of innocent seafarers.

To deal with this, a ‘Group of Friends on Safety and Security of Shipping and Seafarers’ (GoF on S4) has been formed recently. This brings together maritime stakeholders to strengthen cooperation and safety of seafarers in global meetings and discussion tables.

Randhir Jaiswal, the spokesperson of MEA, said that the idea is to get countries on a platform where current issues related to ship attacks and seafarers can be discussed to find viable and practical solutions so that shipping is not impacted and seafarers’ lives can be saved.

The first meeting of the group took place in New York, which was co-chaired by India’s External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar and Liberia’s Foreign Minister, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, with 25 countries taking part in the discussions. Liberia and India criticised the attacks on ships and seafarers in the Middle East waters and also in the Black Sea region.

They said that the activities have disrupted maritime trade, causing unnecessary delays at ports, shortages, and inconveniences for civilians while hampering peace and stability in the region.