NEW DELHI, 23 JUN (DNA) — Resumed shipping flows through the Strait of Hormuz would ease energy and fertilizer supply bottlenecks, India’s security chief said during a BRICS security meeting in New Delhi on Tuesday.
The current state of the crucial waterway for oil and gas transport is uncertain — it reopened last week, after Iran and the United States reached an agreement, but Tehran announced on Saturday it had closed it again in response to Israeli attacks in Lebanon.
Indian National Security Adviser Ajit Doval said its reopening would be a “highly welcome development,” as security chiefs of the BRICS bloc of nations met. India is heavily reliant on imported energy, and its fuel supplies were hit hard during the US-Iran war. “It will help ease supply chain bottlenecks, and many of the shortages in fertilizers, chemicals, and other essential commodities may be alleviated,” Doval said.
Doval on Monday met with Iranian official Ghadir Nezamipour, a senior member of Tehran’s Supreme National Security Council, as well as China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi. Other BRICS representatives, including Russia, South Africa, and Brazil, are also in New Delhi. Maritime traffic in the strait flowed at a faster pace than before the US-Iranian agreement on talks to end the war, according to tracking firms.
At least 35 commodity carriers transited the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, a record level since the start of the Middle East war in late February, according to data from the maritime tracking firm Kpler. The 35 passages represent nearly a third of normal peacetime traffic (around 120 per day) through the strait, which normally sees around a fifth of the world’s oil and gas exports.
The total count for Monday crossings is expected to rise further as ships are detected later by maritime trackers. India’s Commerce Minister Piyush Goyal meanwhile began a fresh round of meetings with visiting US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer in New Delhi. “Ongoing discussions on finalizing the trade deal between the US and India,” US ambassador to India Sergio Gor said, in a social media post.— DNA
