On the morning of June 11, three Indian sailors were still aboard the Palau-flagged MT Settebello when a US Navy strike hit the vessel off the coast of Oman. Their deaths have since transformed what Washington frames as a military campaign against Iranian-linked oil flows into something far more combustible: a rupture between two governments that had, until recently, been carefully cultivating a strategic partnership. India's Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar moved swiftly. In a call with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Friday, he lodged what he described publicly as a "strong protest," writing on X that lethal actions against commercial shipping were simply not justified.

The US State Department confirmed it was in direct contact with New Delhi but offered no public rebuttal. The exchange exposed the fragility of a bilateral relationship that had already been strained by trade disputes since Donald Trump returned to the White House in January 2025. A second tanker, the MT Maverix, had been struck on June 8 with 24 Indian sailors aboard; all were airlifted to safety, sparing the two countries an even graver confrontation. The incidents are part of a broader military campaign that has gripped the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Israeli war against Iran erupted in late February.

A Guinea-Bissau-flagged tanker was also struck on Thursday; its crew, including 20 Indian sailors, was subsequently rescued.