India accepted a request from Iran to allow the amphibious landing vessel Lavan to dock at the port of Kochi on Wednesday, officials said, describing the move as motivated by humanitarian considerations. The docking took place on the same day a U.S. submarine struck the Iranian navy frigate Dena off Sri Lanka, an Indian government source told Reuters.
Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar addressed the incident at the Raisina Dialogue annual conference, saying the Lavan and two accompanying Iranian ships "were coming in for a fleet review and then they got, in a way, caught on the wrong side of the events." He said India had treated the request "from the point of view of humanity, of other than whatever the legal issues were," and added, "I think we did the right thing."
The Lavan was described by the U.S. Naval Institute's online news site as an amphibious landing vessel. India received the formal docking request on February 28, the same day the Iran war began, according to an Indian government source who spoke on condition of anonymity.
That source said the request was urgent because the vessel had developed technical issues. India has provided accommodation for the Lavan's 183 crew members at naval facilities in Kochi, the source added.
Separately, at least 87 people were killed in the U.S. attack on the Dena, which occurred inside Sri Lanka's exclusive economic zone, 19 nautical miles off the country's coast and therefore outside Sri Lanka's maritime boundaries, the reporting said.
Officials and publicly available material on the naval drill indicated that the Dena was returning from a naval exercise organised by India. Sri Lankan authorities said they were escorting another Iranian naval vessel, the Booshehr, to a harbour on Sri Lanka's eastern coast and were in the process of moving most of that ship's crew to a navy camp near Colombo.
The Indian source's account emphasized the technical nature of the problem aboard the Lavan and characterized India's response as prioritising the immediate safety and welfare of the sailors. The Foreign Minister's remarks framed the decision firmly as humanitarian and as separate from any legal debate about port access or maritime jurisdiction.
Contextual notes: Information in this report is based on statements from an Indian government source and comments made by the Indian foreign minister at the Raisina Dialogue, together with public reporting on the classification of the Lavan and official Sri Lankan statements regarding the Booshehr and the Dena.