India Hosted Troubled Iranian Warship In Kochi, No Aid To US In Sinking IRIS Delhi: Government
An Iranian naval vessel was allowed to dock in Kochi after reporting technical problems during its return from the Milan maritime exercise, with India clarifying that the move was a humanitarian decision and unrelated to the sinking of the Iranian frigate IRIS Dena. Image courtesy: X.com/@BabakTaghvaee1
India’s External Affairs Minister Dr. S. Jaishankar said on Saturday (March 7, 2026) that a troubled Iranian warship was hosted in Kochi just days before another Iranian frigate was sunk in the international waters of Sri Lanka by a US submarine.
At the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi, Jaishankar said the Iranian warship, identified by media reports as IRIS Lavan, which was closest to India’s maritime borders, was told to dock at Kochi on March 1, a day after IRIS Dena was sunk by the US submarine.
The ill-fated IRIS Dena was returning to Iran after participating in the Milan maritime exercise hosted by the Indian Navy in Visakhapatnam when it came under the US attack off Sri Lankan waters.
Jaishankar said the Iranian warships returning to Iran from Visakhapatnam were carrying mostly naval cadets, and it reported that it was having technical problems.
“On 1st March, we said you can come in, and it took them a few days to sail in, and then they docked in Kochi. There were a lot of young cadets (on the Iranian warship),” Jaishankar said.
“I too support UNCLOS and international law,” Jaishankar said, without elaborating. The US has not yet ratified the UNCLOS, the United Nations-mandated laws of the seas.
The Indian External Affairs Minister noted that when the Iranian warships came to India for the Milan exercise, the geopolitical and West Asian situation was totally different.
“They were coming in for a fleet review, and then they got in a way caught on the wrong side of events,” he said, without directly mentioning the US-Israel attack on Iran last Saturday (February 28) that killed Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
He said another Iranian warship (IRIS Dena) had a similar situation while sailing close to Sri Lanka, and Colombo took “the decision which they did, and one of them unfortunately didn’t make it (was sunk).”
“We (India) approached the situation from the point of view of humanity, other than whatever the legal issues were, and I think we did the right thing.”
On the social media debate over India’s response to the sinking of the Iranian warship, Jaishankar said, “Please understand the reality of the Indian Ocean. Diego Garcia has been in the Indian Ocean for the last five decades. The fact that there are foreign forces based in Djibouti happened in the early first decade of this century. Hambantota came up during this period.”
Meanwhile, on Friday (March 6), government sources told the media that IRIS Lavan, which had joined the International Fleet Review in mid-February 2026, had requested an urgent port call last Saturday (February 28) after a technical issue.
“Approval was accorded for the docking on March 1. IRIS Lavan has since docked at Kochi on March 4. In this context, its crew of 183 is currently accommodated at naval facilities in Kochi.”
The government sources also dismissed social media and other discussions about the Indian Navy providing intelligence to the US on the IRIS Dena as “baseless” and “preposterous.”
“There is no question of providing any input to the US on it, and the claims are completely baseless,” the sources said.
Meanwhile, Sri Lanka said it was escorting another Iranian naval vessel to its Trincomalee harbour and moving the 208-member crew to a camp, just days after the IRIS Dena sinking by a US submarine on March 4.
Sri Lankan President Anura Kumara Dissanayake said his island nation had a “humanitarian responsibility” to take in the crew.
The Sri Lankan Navy identified the second Iranian ship as the naval auxiliary vessel IRIS Bushehr, which reported an engine problem.
