Indian and Pakistani naval vessels collided in the Arabian Sea on September 15, prompting each government to accuse the other’s ship and raising concern about an unintended escalation between the nuclear-armed neighbours.
Pakistan summoned India’s top diplomat in Islamabad on Wednesday, hours after India summoned Pakistan’s chargé d’affaires and protested over the incident. Neither government has released video, tracking data or an independent account of what happened.
Why the two accounts differ
Pakistan’s Foreign Office said the exercise had been under way since September 1 and alleged that the Indian guided-missile destroyer INS Kolkata had repeatedly tried to enter the exercise area since September 7. Pakistan said the ship made a dangerous course change on September 15 and collided with a Pakistani vessel identified in local media as PNS Hunain.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said the warship was in international waters when a Pakistani vessel approached at high speed and manoeuvred unsafely. India has not confirmed or denied the Kolkata identification, and neither side named the vessels in its own formal statement. Read the context: First live-fire drill by Chinese warship inside Japan’s exclusive economic zone sparks tensions.
What we know now
- Pakistan says the incident occurred during its SEASPARK-26 naval exercise inside the country’s exclusive economic zone.
- India says its warship was conducting routine surveillance in international waters.
- The 1991 bilateral agreement requires warships to remain at least three nautical miles apart in international waters.
What could happen after the collision
Retired Pakistan Navy Vice Admiral Ahmad Saeed said the 1991 confidence-building agreement sets a minimum distance but does not establish manoeuvring rules or a process for investigating an incident. He said the two countries also lack a bilateral Incidents at Sea agreement and a navy-to-navy hotline.
Maritime analyst Muhammad Shareh Qazi said international collision regulations apply to both countries and that each navy has internal accountability procedures, including possible court martial proceedings for unauthorised action. He said the incident’s future significance would depend on whether subsequent official statements indicate an intention to escalate.
A previous collision ended differently
Indian and Pakistani naval vessels also collided in June 2011 in the Gulf of Aden while escorting a merchant vessel freed from Somali pirates. Both sides blamed the other, but that dispute faded within weeks.
The current incident is the first direct military encounter between the countries since their four-day air conflict in May 2025. Saeed said the political environment is more sensitive now because both publics remain affected by that conflict.
What happens next
The immediate focus is on whether India or Pakistan issues further official statements in the 24 to 48 hours after the protests, a period Qazi identified as important in assessing whether the collision could recur or escalate.
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