India Has More Ships in the Strait of Hormuz Than Any Other Country – Defence Minister

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said that India has more ships passing through the Strait of Hormuz than any other country. He was speaking at a ceremony for the late Governor of Uttar Pradesh. He linked that position to India’s ties with the US and Iran, saying that the two-track diplomacy had kept fuel prices stable in India while they rose in many other countries.

After a US-Israel military campaign against Iran in late March, the country closed the Strait to most international traffic. Normally, about one-fifth of the world’s oil flows through the waterway. Its closure has made energy markets in Europe and Asia more unstable.

Tehran let Indian ships through the blockade. Mohammad Fathali, Iran’s ambassador to India, confirmed the exemption.

Earlier, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian had talked about how to get around. There is a crisis in West Asia, and Iran’s missiles are not hitting the US. “India has played a balanced role,” Singh said.

The Indian Navy started Operation Urja Suraksha in March 2026 to protect energy shipments going to India through the Strait.

Twenty of the 22 ships involved in the operation are high-priority ships that carry liquefied natural gas (LNG), liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), and crude oil.

On March 30, two LPG tankers, BW TYR and BW ELM, safely crossed the Strait with a total of about 94,000 tonnes of fuel. This brought the total number of escorted vessels to six. BW TYR was going to Mumbai, and BW ELM was going to New Mangalore, where they were supposed to arrive on April 1.

India was having a hard time getting cooking gas at home when the naval operation happened. There are 333 million homes in the country that get LPG, and the government used emergency powers after the Strait closed, making it harder to get.

Refineries were told to make as much LPG as possible, and people who already had piped natural gas connections were not allowed to buy LPG cylinders to keep supplies for homes that didn’t have any other options.

Singh said that there were no shortages at the time he spoke. He also said that India is now one of the four biggest economies in the world and that the Atmanizbhar Bharat initiative had helped the country go from buying weapons and drones to making them.