Eleven India-bound commercial vessels, carrying crude oil, gas and fertilisers, have crossed the Strait of Hormuz since June 17, when the United States and Iran signed a 14-point Memorandum of Understanding (MoU), the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) said on Tuesday.
Providing the operation assessment of the West Asia situation during its regularpress briefing, the MEA further stated that 10 India-flagged vessels still remain in the Persian Gulf region.
“We have ten Indian-flagged vessels still in the Persian Gulf region. In addition, we have two Indian ships which have crossed from this side into the Persian Gulf. Since the signing of the MoU, eleven India-bound vessels have crossed the Strait of Hormuz,” MEA spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.
The closure of the Strait of Hormuz by Iran in response to the US and Israeli attacks triggered a massive energy, gas and fertiliser crisis in India.
With the signing of the MoU between the US and Iran, the Hormuz was cleared for maritime traffic.
However, the Iranian authorities on Saturday again closed the Hormuz after Israeli strikes on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon.
But reports claimed that the commercial shipping traffic through the crucial passage has reportedly accelerated in the wake of recent developments.
Independent maritime tracking agencies have registered heightened commercial shipping traffic in the last few days, signalling a noticeable recovery in transport volumes after severe bottlenecks triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz since the US-Israel attack on Iran on February 28.
According to figures published by commodity analytics firm Kpler, no fewer than 36 resource carriers sailed through the Strait of Hormuz on Monday, representing one of the densest operational windows observed since the conflict erupted in February.
The Iran-US MoU, formalised last week, initiated a 60-day diplomatic window to iron out long-standing strategic issues after months of direct military confrontations that heavily destabilised West Asian energy corridors and upended international financial markets.
(With inputs from agencies)