Kamal Ghorui
India Knows ‘Who Does What’ In The Indian Ocean, So Why Is It Silent On IRIS Dena Sinking? Explained
The Iranian frigate IRIS Dena arrived in Visakhapatnam on February 16 as a guest of India’s International Fleet Review and multilateral exercise MILAN-2026, welcomed by the Eastern Naval Command as a symbol of long-standing cultural and strategic ties between the two nations. The USS Pinckney, originally invited to the same event, withdrew at the last minute. The exercise concluded on February 25. Three days later the United States and Israel launched Operation Epic Fury against Iran. The IRIS Dena, sailing home from Indian shores, was torpedoed and sunk by a US submarine in international waters near Sri Lanka’s EEZ. Over 80 sailors were killed. India dispatched naval assets to the area but the government maintained a studied silence, no condemnation, no statement of outrage, no diplomatic protest to Washington. The silence triggered immediate political controversy at home, with opposition parties demanding answers on whether India had advance knowledge of the strike. Legal and strategic analysts have pushed back on the most sweeping claims, the sinking occurred outside India’s EEZ and SAR jurisdiction, LEMOA requires explicit case-by-case consent, and under the laws of armed conflict an Iranian warship in international waters is a legitimate military target. But the deeper question the incident raises cannot be deflected by legal analysis alone. India’s Naval Chief declared in 2024 that India knows “who is doing what, where and how” in the Indian Ocean. A ship that left an Indian port was sunk in those same waters days later. India’s claim to be the ocean’s pre-eminent security provider will eventually require not just capability but a doctrine for how it intends to behave when that ocean becomes someone else’s battlefield.
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