Freedom of navigation important for global economic security: EAM Jaishankar

What Happened

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar, speaking at the G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Paris, underscored that freedom of navigation is indispensable for global economic security — directly linking the Hormuz blockade to downstream impacts on food, energy, and fertiliser supply chains.
Jaishankar raised the concerns of the Global South, particularly around energy challenges, fertiliser supply disruptions, and food security risks arising from the West Asia conflict — framing these not as abstract geopolitical concerns but as immediate livelihood issues for developing nations.
He specifically cited IMEC (India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor) as a framework that makes an even stronger case for resilient trade corridors and diversified supply chains amid the current crisis.
Jaishankar held bilateral engagements on the sidelines with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Saudi Foreign Minister Faisal bin Farhan Al-Saud, flagging India's navigation and supply chain concerns.
India has simultaneously been engaged at the diplomatic level with Italy, Germany, and other G7 partners on coordinating a response to the Gulf crisis.

Static Topic Bridges

Freedom of navigation is one of the oldest principles of international law, traceable to the 17th-century writings of Hugo Grotius (Mare Liberum, 1609) and codified in modern international law through the United Nations Convention on the Law of the Sea (UNCLOS, 1982, in force 1994). India ratified UNCLOS in 1995 and is a strong proponent of the rules-based international maritime order.

UNCLOS Article 38 guarantees the right of transit passage through international straits — a right that cannot be suspended by any coastal state, including during military conflict.
UNCLOS Article 87 enshrines the freedom of navigation on the high seas for ships of all states.
India has consistently invoked freedom of navigation in multiple contexts: the South China Sea (against China's island-building), the Gulf of Aden (anti-piracy operations), and now the Hormuz crisis.
India does not conduct "freedom of navigation operations" (FONOPs) in the US military style but asserts navigation rights through diplomatic statements, naval deployments, and multilateral forums.
The 2023 joint India-US statement explicitly reaffirmed freedom of navigation and overflight in the Indo-Pacific, consistent with international law.

Connection to this news: Jaishankar's invocation of freedom of navigation at the G7 is a principled legal position anchored in UNCLOS — directly addressing the IRGC's discriminatory blockade as a violation of international maritime law and framing India's energy supply crisis as a rules-based order issue.

India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC)

The India-Middle East-Europe Economic Corridor (IMEC) was launched at the G20 New Delhi Summit in September 2023, with a Memorandum of Understanding signed by India, the United States, Saudi Arabia, the UAE, France, Germany, Italy, and the European Union. It is designed as a multi-modal corridor linking India to Europe through the Arabian Peninsula and the Mediterranean, serving as a strategic alternative to existing maritime routes through the Suez Canal and the Strait of Hormuz.

IMEC comprises two sub-corridors: the Eastern Corridor (India to Arabian Gulf) and the Northern Corridor (Arabian Gulf to Europe).
Infrastructure components: rail networks through Saudi Arabia and the UAE, port facilities (Mundra, Kandla, JNPT in India; Fujairah, Jebel Ali, Abu Dhabi in UAE; Dammam in Saudi Arabia; Haifa in Israel; Piraeus in Greece; Messina in Italy; Marseille in France), and undersea cable + hydrogen pipeline components.
IMEC is projected to reduce logistics costs by up to 30% and transportation time by 40% compared to the Suez Canal maritime route.
The corridor is also meant to carry green hydrogen, electricity, and high-speed data — making it a 21st-century multi-sector connectivity project, not merely a trade route.
Signatory countries: India, US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, France, Germany, Italy, European Union.

Connection to this news: The Hormuz closure dramatically highlights IMEC's strategic rationale — a rail-and-port corridor that can bypass maritime chokepoints entirely would represent structural diversification of India's supply chains, something Jaishankar explicitly argued for in Paris.

The G7 and India's Diplomatic Engagement

The Group of Seven (G7) comprises Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the United Kingdom, and the United States — the world's seven largest advanced economies. India is not a G7 member but is regularly invited as a guest and "outreach country," particularly given its G20 Presidency (2023) and its emergence as the world's fifth-largest economy.

The G7 Foreign Ministers' Meeting in Paris (March 2026) was convened in part to discuss the West Asia crisis and its global economic ramifications.
India's participation as an outreach partner gives its EAM a platform to inject Global South priorities — food, fuel, fertiliser — into discussions that might otherwise focus primarily on Western strategic concerns (energy supply to Europe, Israel's security).
India has leveraged G20 forums (where it holds permanent membership) to institutionalise Global South representation; the G7 outreach format extends this engagement.
India has signed or concluded Free Trade Agreements with EFTA (2024), the UK (expected 2026), and is in advanced negotiations with the EU — all of which intersect with IMEC as a trade facilitation corridor.

Connection to this news: India's G7 engagement on the Hormuz crisis demonstrates its hybrid diplomatic role — simultaneously a major economy with direct energy security interests and a spokesperson for the Global South's development concerns.

Global South and Supply Chain Resilience

The "Global South" refers loosely to the developing economies of Asia, Africa, and Latin America — a term that gained prominence in international discourse following the Non-Aligned Movement (1961) and has been revived in recent years as a counterpoint to Western-led frameworks. India has positioned itself as a natural leader of the Global South, particularly during its G20 Presidency, where it secured the African Union's permanent membership.

Global South nations are disproportionately vulnerable to commodity price shocks: they spend a higher share of income on food and energy, hold smaller foreign exchange reserves, and have less diversified supply chains.
The Hormuz closure is estimated to affect approximately 40–45 developing countries that depend on Gulf energy exports.
Supply chain resilience — the ability of an economy to withstand or recover from supply disruptions — is increasingly recognised as a development priority, not merely a corporate logistics concern.
India's advocacy for alternative trade corridors (INSTC, IMEC) and its push for supply chain diversification align with its broader argument that the Global South requires structural de-risking from Western-controlled chokepoints and routes.

Connection to this news: Jaishankar's explicit framing of the Hormuz crisis as a Global South issue — linking navigation rights to food security and fertiliser supply — positions India as a principled multilateral actor advocating for structural supply chain reform, not merely pursuing narrow bilateral energy interests.

Key Facts & Data

IMEC MoU signed: G20 New Delhi Summit, September 9, 2023
IMEC signatories: India, US, Saudi Arabia, UAE, France, Germany, Italy, EU
IMEC projected benefits: 30% reduction in logistics costs, 40% reduction in transportation time vs. Suez Canal route
India's crude oil import dependence: ~87–88% imported; ~49% from West Asia
India's LPG import: ~90%+ from Gulf historically; ~2.2 million tonnes/year new US LPG deal (February 2026)
G7 members: Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, United Kingdom, United States
India's fertiliser import dependence on Gulf: ~70% of urea, ~41% of DAP from Saudi Arabia alone
UNCLOS Article 38: transit passage right through international straits — cannot be suspended by any coastal state
India ratified UNCLOS: 1995