The United States and its Western allies are caught up in the Red Sea with Operation Prosperity Guardian. Their fight is with the Houthi terrorists, who are leaving no stone unturned to disrupt international shipping and attack vessels at sea. The West’s preoccupation with the Houthis has left a glaring vacuum in another area of critical importance for international shipping – the Gulf of Aden.

Importantly, no other major world power has come forward to protect international shipping from pirates. The absence, or rather the vegetative behaviour of the Chinese navy, for example, comes to mind. Despite deployments in the region, China appears too wary to take the plunge and play a role in protecting international shipping.

Fortunately, India has stepped up to the task and is now ensuring that pirates do not assume that tensions in West Asia give them a free pass to attack and hijack any and all ships. Unlike so-called blue water navies that claim they can operate in any part of the world, the Indian Navy is chasing down pirates at a breakneck pace thousands of miles away from its coast.

The most recent example of the Indian Navy’s proactiveness is the freeing of the hijacked merchant vessel MV Ruen, which had been under siege since December last year and was being used for piracy. That a ship remained hijacked for three months without any country caring to rescue it, this is a poignant statement of the times we live in. At a time when the world appears more divided than ever, India is going out of its way to rescue ships irrespective of which country they belong to. That is a statement too, and speaks volumes about India’s emergence as a “Vishwamitra” – a friend of the world.

(With Agency Inputs)