00:00Some big questions there for Admiral Prakash, they're setting the stage saying it's time for
00:04India to speak up or someone should speak up and restore sanity to what's happening with the
00:10Strait of Hormuz where remember a large part of the world's fuel supply moves through these straits.
00:16Is it the most dangerous place in the world at the moment? Has Iran weaponized the Hormuz
00:21Strait to a point of no control? How does India ensure that our seafarers are protected who are
00:28caught in the crossfire? Who is violating international law here? Iran or the United
00:33States? I'm joined at the moment by Ambassador Nadeep Suri, former Indian ambassador to UAE,
00:38Egypt and Australia but someone who's tracked this entire issue particularly the Strait of Hormuz
00:43very very closely. I appreciate you joining us Ambassador Suri. You heard Admiral Prakash
00:50they're saying someone needs to now speak out strongly. He's calling for India to put its moral
00:55and strategic weight to ensure that the lives of Indian sailors in particular are protected. We've
01:01had the Indian government calling in the Iranian deputy chief of mission in today. Do we really have any
01:09leverage? Can India really assert any leverage over Tehran or Washington in the Strait of Hormuz?
01:19Rajdeep, I think Admiral Prakash made some very important points. Do we have leverage? We can always
01:26reclaim the leverage that we've lost. It's going to take time and effort to rebuild it but we should
01:32acknowledge that by taking a fairly partisan position right at the beginning of the conflict
01:38we lost some leverage. And it's never too late to do the right thing. We can still act not only
01:48on the basis of
01:49short-term pragmatism but longer-term principles. And I think it's high time that we started speaking up not just
01:58for
02:00our sailors but our longer-term interests in the region. And we can see that it's not, you know, last
02:08week we were talking about
02:09energy security. Today we are talking about sailors. Who are you going to blame? Admiral Prakash spoke about
02:16the need to restore sanity. I think there's a need to restore some semblance of international law.
02:23When, you know, when you have the global policeman becoming the principal lawbreaker and not only
02:29flouting the law but flaunting the ease with which he breaks it, you are seeing a breakdown of the
02:36international system. And I think it's time for us to start pitching up again for a return to
02:42international institutions including the United Nations. It may seem ineffective now but we have a stake in
02:49that system. Today, you know, we are being victims from one side. Tomorrow we can be victims from
02:55another side.
02:59No, but who do we speak to? You see, it's one thing to say India must speak up and exercise
03:04its moral and
03:04strategic weight. Who do we speak to? Do we speak to Donald Trump? Can we, can India, can India have
03:11any
03:11leverage at all with Washington? Do we speak to the, to the government in Tehran? There have been reports of
03:17conversations that the prime minister has had with his Iranian counterpart, the president of Iran but, but
03:23little seems to come out of it. It almost seems as if India is powerless. You've got Turkey, Egypt, Pakistan
03:29playing a role to try and bring the two sides to the negotiating table. But right from the start, India
03:35has
03:35really not played any effective role. So now when our sailors are caught in the crossfire, what role can India
03:42really play? What is the actual role that India can play? And will we be taken seriously?
03:48In the last 24 hours, Rajdeep, we have spoken up loud and clear against the Iranian cruise missile
03:54attack, which hurt our sailor and killed one. We have spoken fairly loud and clear about the 10 years
04:03having passed since there was an international ruling against China's occupation of islands in the South China
04:10sea. The point is, are we going to continue being selective in our outreach? Or are we going to
04:16take a more principled position and say, yes, Iran is wrong here. And yes, China is wrong here. But the
04:22US is wrong here and Israel is wrong here. And if we don't say that, then we won't get taken
04:26seriously.
04:28So, so I think it's really for us to rediscover that position that we were earlier able to take
04:35off being able to speak our mind. We didn't always do that. And I think whenever we didn't, whether it
04:42was in the past on Czechoslovakia or on Hungary during the 50s and 60s, we found that we lost a
04:49certain amount of moral ground. And with that, we eroded our political authority as well. So I think,
04:57I think we need to reclaim some of that by speaking up wherever it is. It's become fashionable for us
05:04to
05:05to maintain a diplomatic silence on things that don't concern us. But I think we need to, if you
05:11are not on the table, you are self asserting your point of view, you will be on the menu.
05:20No, no, but again, who is in the right and who is in the wrong? You seem to be suggesting
05:25that,
05:26particularly in the manner in which Iran's cruise missiles have targeted merchant navy ships going
05:31through the Strait of Hormuz, Iran is in the wrong. Iran says the Strait of Hormuz, they will decide
05:37who is allowed to move through it and who is not. United States is imposing a blockade. Donald Trump, one
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