UN Meeting: Houthi Shipping Attacks Impacting India
NEW YORK, NY (IANS) – The spillover of the Israel-Hamas conflict to “the vicinity of India” with attacks on shipping by Houthi rebels has an impact on India’s economic interests, according to Deputy Permanent Representative R. Ravindra.
The conflict’s impact on the safety of commercial shipping in the Indian Ocean “has a direct bearing on India’s own energy and economic interests”, he said on January 23 at a high-level meeting of the Security Council on the situation in the Middle East.
He said some of the attacks were happening “in the vicinity of India” and “this fraught situation is not to the benefit of any party, and this must be clearly recognized,” he said.
Ravindra did not name the Yemeni Houthi rebels who are carrying out the attack or specifically mention the Red Sea around where the incidents have taken place.
The Houthi rebels have said that they are attacking ships as an act of solidarity with the Palestinians under attack from Israel in Gaza.
The Red Sea forms the link between the Arabian Sea and the Indian Ocean to the Suez Canal, the main link for India and Asia to areas of the Middle East, Europe and beyond.
India’s Navy has said that it was “surging” its presence in the region and earlier this month one of its ships acted to protect a commercial ship under attack.
France, the president of the Security Council for this month, convened the high-level meeting presided over by Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne with the participation of about 15 foreign ministers, including Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and Iran’s Hossein Amirabdollahian.
Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said that the situation in the Red Sea is “deeply worrying”.
“Houthi attacks are disrupting global trade”, he said, and “these have been followed by airstrikes by the United States and the United Kingdom on Houthi positions in Yemen.”
“De-escalation is essential — and all attacks on merchant and commercial vessels in the Red Sea must cease immediately,” he said.
Anil
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India has enough Navy ships.
1) Have a small Navy ship accompany every ship carrying Indian Goods and charge a fee for any non-Indian boat to accompany it
January 24, 20242) Apply deadly force on anyone attacking a vessel under protection
3) Have dummy boats with soldiers waiting for the terrorists on board and after they Board, arrest them extract information and imprison them on a decommissioned ship in Indian waters until trial and until they complete their term. Then drop them in international waters where they were picked up in a plastic dinghy with a bamboo stick as oar. Unless another country wants them.
Pradeep Srivastava
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““Houthi attacks are disrupting global trade”, he said, and “these have been followed by airstrikes by the United States and the United Kingdom on Houthi positions in Yemen.”“
Since Houthi attacks are disrupting global trade, it is no longer a U.S. issue. Instead, it’s a global issue and needs to be addressed at the global scale.
“ France, the president of the Security Council for this month, convened the high-level meeting presided over by Foreign Minister Stephane Sejourne with the participation of about 15 foreign ministers, including Russia’s Sergey Lavrov and Iran’s Hossein Amirabdollahian.”
I hope something substantial and effective would come out of this meeting.
The following article from apnews.com provides more details on this issue. Due to its length, only a portion of it has been posted.
“Attacks on ships in the Red Sea are disrupting global trade. Here’s how it could affect what you buy
BY PAUL WISEMAN AND MAE ANDERSON
Updated 9:04 PM PST, January 27, 2024“
“WASHINGTON (AP) — Car factories have idled in Belgium and Germany. Spring fashion lines are delayed at a popular British department store. A Maryland company that makes hospital supplies doesn’t know when to expect parts from Asia.
Attacks on ships in the Red Sea are delivering another shock to global trade, coming on top of pandemic-related logjams at ports and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Houthi rebels in Yemen, seeking to stop Israel’s offensive against Hamas in Gaza, are attacking cargo ships plying the waters connecting Asia with Europe and the United States, forcing traffic away from the Suez Canal and around the tip of Africa. The disruption is causing delays and driving up costs — at a time when the world has yet to vanquish a resurgence of inflation.
“What’s happened right now is short-term chaos, and chaos leads to increased costs,” said Ryan Petersen, CEO of the supply chain management company Flexport. “Every ship that gets rerouted has 10,000 containers on it. It’s a lot of emails and phone calls getting made to replan each of those container journeys.”
Adding to the bedlam in global shipping is what Petersen calls a “double whammy”: Passage through another crucial trade corridor — the Panama Canal — is restricted by low water levels caused by drought. And shippers are in a rush to move goods before Chinese factories shut down for the Feb. 10-17 Lunar New Year holiday.
The threat grows considerably the longer the war in Gaza drags on. Disruption to Red Sea trade lasting a year could surge goods inflation by up to 2%, Petersen says, piling on pain while the world already struggles with higher prices for groceries, rent and more. That also could mean even higher interest rates, which have weakened economies.
For now, Man & Machine in Greater Landover, Maryland, is awaiting a shipment from Taiwan and greater China. It’s been one setback after another for the company, which makes washable keyboards and accessories for hospitals and other customers….”
January 30, 2024