External Affairs Minister (EAM) S. Jaishankar on Friday acknowledged the attack on the Iranian warship IRIS Dena in a speech at the Raisina Dialogue in New Delhi.
Without explicitly naming the vessel, he called the sinking of the Moudge-class frigate "unfortunate", and said that it got "caught on the wrong side of events".
He also confirmed that there had been two other Iranian naval vessels that had come to India under a "totally different" situation—as guests for the International Fleet Review (IFR) 2026 at Visakhapatnam in mid-February.
However, he did not name the other two vessels—the IRIS Lavan, which was allowed to dock in Kochi on humanitarian grounds, and the IRIS Bushehr, which was allowed to dock in Sri Lanka.
"I think we did the right thing," he added in the discussion where he also mentioned that India fully supported UNCLOS and international law.
What happened to the three Iranian vessels?
US defence secretary Pete Hegseth on March 4 confirmed that Washington was responsible for torpedoing the IRIS Dena about 40 nautical miles off the coast of Sri Lanka's Galle, as a part of Operation Epic Fury, its name for the coordinated joint strikes with Israel on Iran.
The IRIS Lavan did not suffer the same fate. Jaishankar confirmed—without naming it—that it had sought permission on February 28 to dock in Kochi after developing technical faults.
Owing to humanitarian concerns, he added that the docking was approved on March 1, and on March 4—the day the IRIS Dena was attacked—the IRIS Lavan arrived in Kochi and its young sailors were housed at naval facilities.
The IRIS Bushehr took a bit longer to receive approval to dock in Sri Lanka, but it eventually did so. However, while Sri Lanka’s decision on the IRIS Bushehr was termed by a few stakeholders as a courageous act against American and Israeli pressure, it also set off a political debate in the Sri Lankan parliament.
Iran's reaction to the IRIS Dena attack
Iran's Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs, Saeed Khatibzadeh—who was also present at the Raisina Dialogue—reiterated that the attack was a "sad, unfortunate" incident.
"Americans are exercising the practice of Nazi Germany when they attacked a ceremonial, unarmed and unloaded vessel" that had come "by invitation of our Indian friends", he told reporters at the event.
He added that he had spoken to EAM Jaishankar about the attack, and noted that the "principles of international law have been attacked and we have to stand together against these atrocities".