India Summons Pakistan Envoy Over Naval Collision in North Arabian Sea

New Delhi: In a sharp diplomatic escalation over high-seas conduct, the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) summoned Pakistan's Chargé d'Affaires to South Block to register a stern diplomatic protest over the reckless and unprofessional maneuvers of a Pakistani naval vessel that led to a direct collision with a frontline Indian Navy warship in international waters. The maritime incident occurred in the North Arabian Sea, approximately 220 kilometers east of the Oman coastline, while the Indian warship was carrying out routine maritime surveillance under Operation Urja Suraksha. Simultaneously, India's diplomatic mission in Islamabad has been instructed to lodge a parallel demarche with Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs.

How the High-Seas Confrontation Unfolded

According to defense and diplomatic officials, the confrontation involved an Indian Navy Kolkata-class guided-missile stealth destroyer and the PNS Hunain, a 2,300-tonne Yarmook-class offshore patrol vessel commissioned by the Pakistan Navy in July 2024, which was operating as part of their naval exercise Sea Spark:

• Aggressive Interception: While the Indian destroyer maintained course along international transit corridors, PNS Hunain engaged in aggressive shadowing, dangerously closing the gap between the two surface combatants.
• Disregard for Bridge-to-Bridge Warnings: The Indian warship's bridge team repeatedly broadcast navigational warnings over international maritime VHF Channel 16, urging the Pakistani vessel to maintain safe passing distance.
• Starboard Turn and Impact: Disregarding standard sea protocols, PNS Hunain accelerated suddenly and executed an abrupt turn across the Indian destroyer's bow, resulting in the Pakistani vessel's bow grazing the Indian warship.
• Damage Assessment: The Indian Navy confirmed that the Kolkata-class destroyer suffered no structural damage, zero operational degradation, and no personnel casualties, remaining fully deployed on its operational tasking. Conversely, naval sources confirmed that PNS Hunain sustained localized hull and bow impact damage, forcing it to retreat to port.

Violation of the 1991 Bilateral Accord and COLREGs

During the demarche, New Delhi underscored that Islamabad's naval forces violated foundational international and bilateral maritime frameworks:

• Article 10 of the 1991 Bilateral Agreement: Under the 1991 India-Pakistan Agreement on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Manoeuvres, and Troop Movements, warships and submarines of both nations operating in international waters are strictly obligated to maintain a minimum buffer of at least 3 nautical miles (approximately 5.6 km) to prevent inadvertent collisions. PNS Hunain breached this safety distance entirely.
• COLREGs Infraction: The maneuvers violated the International Regulations for Preventing Collisions at Sea (COLREGs), which dictate strict right-of-way obligations and collision-avoidance actions in shared maritime corridors.

Echoes of Past High-Seas Encounters

The collision represents the most severe surface contact between the two rival navies since June 2011, when the Pakistani frigate PNS Babur made contact with the helicopter flight deck net of the Indian frigate INS Godavari while escorting the hijacked merchant vessel MV Suez in the Gulf of Aden. With dense naval assets deployed across the Arabian Sea to safeguard critical shipping lanes against piracy and regional drone threats, reckless military maneuvers significantly elevate the risk of unintended escalation between the two nuclear-armed states.