India summoned Pakistan’s Charge d’Affaires in New Delhi on Wednesday to lodge a formal protest following a collision between a Pakistani naval ship and an Indian warship in the North Arabian Sea. The Ministry of External Affairs stated that the incident happened on the evening of September 15 in international waters during routine surveillance by an Indian frontline unit. According to India, the Pakistani vessel approached at high speed in an unsafe and unprofessional manner, resulting in the strike, though no major damage was reported.
The MEA condemned the conduct as unacceptable and a violation of Article 10 of the April 1991 bilateral agreement, which requires naval ships and submarines to maintain a distance of at least three nautical miles in international waters. The Pakistani diplomat was instructed to urge Islamabad’s military commands to respect the agreement and prevent similar incidents, while India’s Charge d’Affaires in Islamabad delivered a matching protest to Pakistan’s foreign ministry on the same day.
The Pakistani government did not issue an immediate public response. This sea collision represents the first direct military friction between the nuclear-armed neighbors since their brief conventional conflict last year, occurring against a backdrop of strained diplomatic relations where ambassadors have not been exchanged since 2019.