Middle East: India stresses multialignment amid Hormuz crisis

With the Strait of Hormuz unsafe for vessels to cross, the global flow of crude and natural gas has come to a standstill.

For India, this underscores the strategic importance of secure Sea Lanes of Communication (SLOCs) to its energy security and economic stability.

The ongoing blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, part of an  escalation of the conflict triggered by the February 28 bombing of Iran in a joint US-Israel military operation, was a largely anticipated scenario in a policy response formulated by the Government of India back in 2023.

Foreseeing the current oil crisis, India’s Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas and the Parliamentary Standing Committee focused on the need to diversify energy imports, build buffer stocks and step up maritime surveillance.

As a result, India’s  parliament heard on 12 March 2026 that the country was energy resilient with over 70 per cent of its crude supply not routed via Hormuz.

But the importance of the waterway as a critical artery of global trade cannot be understated. As the conflict between the US-Israel axis and Iran shows no signs of let-up, international attention is focused on the Strait of Hormuz as a bellwether of global financial markets.

Wedged between Oman and Iran, the waterway provides passage to the world’s largest crude oil tankers and links the Persian Gulf with the Gulf of Oman and the Arabian Sea.

Close to 90 per cent of the crude oil that passed through the Strait of Hormuz in early 2025 went to key Asian destinations such as China, India, Japan and South Korea.

China was the largest destination for LNG flowing through the Strait of Hormuz last year.

India has future-proofed its crude oil supply by relying on a strategy of sourcing its crude oil from 40 countries, with Russia as the largest supplier, followed by Saudi Arabia.

Iraq, Kuwait and the UAE are also among India’s network of suppliers, along with Nigeria, Mexico, Brazil, Guyana, Angola, and other African nations.

In response to the current escalation in the Middle East, India has stepped up diplomatic engagement with regional actors and deployed its navy to escort India-flagged vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.

But security concerns abound. LPG tankers headed for India remain stranded in the Persian Gulf as a result of maritime traffic disruptions.

India’s deft navigation of its energy concerns and management of the flow of commerce through the Strait of Hormuz, despite the blockade, has drawn comment from US President Donald Trump, whose policy in the region has been instrumental in the closure of the Strait.

This is as much a testimony of New Delhi’s successful maritime strategy in the Gulf as its foreign policy of multiple alignment in the region.

But it is also a foreign policy hewn on diplomatic provocation around incidents such as the 4 March 2026 torpedoing by the US of the Iranian naval frigate, Iris Dena, off the Sri Lankan coast during the ongoing Iran war,  killing scores of sailors. The frigate had  participated in the MILAN 2026 and the International Fleet Review 2026, hosted by the Indian Navy in Visakhapatnam in the South Indian state of Andhra Pradesh.

That incident was widely perceived as an act of brinkmanship by the US that threatened to expand the conflict  beyond the Persian Gulf, spreading its  ripples to wider maritime spaces in the Indian Ocean region.