A collision occurred between a Pakistan Navy vessel and an Indian warship in the Arabian Sea, attributed to the Pakistani ship’s ‘unprofessional and unsafe’ manoeuvring. In response to the incident, New Delhi summoned Pakistan’s top diplomat on Wednesday to express strong objections.
This agreement was among a series of military confidence-building measures between the two countries and largely relates to steps to be taken to prevent any incidents during army, air force and navy exercises. The Indian charge d’affaires in Islamabad was also instructed to lodge a similar protest with Pakistan’s foreign ministry. In the process, PNS Babur touched INS Godavari, marginally damaging an extended safety net on the helicopter deck. India had lodged a protest with the Pakistan government through the high commission in New Delhi over the incident.
The collision was the first reported incident involving the militaries of the two countries since four days of hostilities in May 2025, triggered by India’s attacks on terror infrastructure in Pakistan in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack.
The charge d’affaires of the Pakistan high commission, Saad Warraich, was summoned to the external affairs ministry and a strong protest was registered over the “unacceptable and unprofessional conduct of Pakistani naval units at sea that led to a collision with a unit of the Indian Navy”, the ministry said in a statement. The external affairs ministry said the incident, which occurred in international waters, did not cause “any major damage” to the Indian warship, but the “conduct of the Pakistani naval ship was in direct contravention of Article 10 of the Agreement between India and Pakistan on Advance Notice on Military Exercises, Manoeuvres and Troops Movements of April 1991”. Article 10 of the agreement states that naval ships and submarines should maintain a distance of at least three nautical miles from vessels of the other country “to avoid any accident while operating in international waters”. Late on Wednesday night, Pakistan’s foreign ministry said it had summoned Indian charge d’affaires Satyanjal Pandey and lodged a strong protest over a “highly provocative and unacceptable action” by an Indian Navy vessel in Pakistan’s exclusive economic zone (EEZ). The ministry alleged in a statement that the Indian vessel carried out “aggressive maneuvers in dangerously close proximity” to a Pakistani naval ship, “resulting in contact between the two vessels”.
