India welcomes US-Iran ceasefire: ‘Expect global flow of commerce would prevail through the Strait of Hormuz’
The Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement that it expects unimpeded freedom of navigation and the global flow of commerce to prevail through the Strait of Hormuz.
India on Wednesday welcomed the two-week ceasefire agreed by the United States and Iran in the West Asia war, which began six weeks ago.
Ministry of External Affairs said that it expects unimpeded freedom of navigation and the global flow of commerce to prevail through the Strait of Hormuz.
“We welcome the ceasefire reached and hope that it will lead to a lasting peace in West Asia. As we have continuously advocated earlier, de-escalation, dialogue and diplomacy are essential to bring an early end to the ongoing conflict,” the Ministry of External Affairs said in a statement.
Earlier, Iran’s Supreme National Security Council said it has accepted a two-week ceasefire in the war announced by US President Donald Trump earlier on Wednesday morning. The statement said it would begin negotiations with the United States in Islamabad on Friday.
“The conflict has already caused immense suffering to people and disrupted global energy supply and trade networks. We expect that unimpeded freedom of navigation and global flow of commerce would prevail through the Strait of Hormuz,” the statement read.
The United States and Iran reached a ceasefire deal less than two hours before President Donald Trump's deadline for Tehran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz or face the wiping out of “a whole civilisation”.
The announcement by Trump late on Tuesday (US time) represented an abrupt turnaround from his earlier extraordinary warning and came after mediation efforts by Pakistan's military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, and its Prime Minister, Shehbaz Sharif.
It has been six weeks since the West Asia war began with joint US-Israeli attacks on Iran. Tensions escalated following the killing of 86-year-old Iran's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, in the military strikes on 28 February.
In retaliation, Iran targeted Israeli and US assets across several Gulf countries, causing further disruptions to the waterway and impacting international energy markets as well as global economic stability, disrupting trade routes through the Strait of Hormuz.
The fighting has left thousands dead, most of them in Iran and Lebanon, and brought vessel traffic through Hormuz — through which about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas exports normally flow — to a near standstill.
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Gulam Jeelani is Political Desk Editor at LiveMint with over 16 years of experience covering national and international politics. Based in New Delhi, Jeelani delivers impactful political narratives through breaking stories, in-depth interviews, and analytical pieces at LiveMint since February 2024. The expertise in video production fuels his current responsibilities, which include curating content and conducting video interviews for an expanding digital audience.<br><br> Jeelani also travels during elections and key political events and has covered assembly elections in key states apart from national elections. He has previously worked with The Pioneer, Network18, India Today, News9Plus and Hindustan Times.<br><br> Jeelani’s tenure at LiveMint and previous experience at print and digital newsrooms have honed his skills in creating compelling text and video stories, explainers, and analysis that resonate with a diverse viewership.<br><br> Before moving to New Delhi in 2015, Jeelani was based in Uttar Pradesh, where he worked for five years as a reporter. In 2018, Jeelani was one of the two Indian journalists selected for the Alfred Friendly Fellowship in the US. There, he attended training workshops on reporting and data journalism, and he was attached to the Minneapolis Star Tribune in Minnesota, where he worked as a reporter.<br><br> Jeelani is a Bachelor's in Chemistry and holds a Masters Degree in journalism and mass communication from Aligarh Muslim University. Outside work, he enjoys poetry, cricket and movies.