India granted permission to three Iranian warships to dock at the country's ports three days before one of them, IRIS Dena, was sunk by a US submarine near Sri Lanka.
The permission was given on March 1, after Iran sought it on February 28, the day Israel and the US launched their attacks on Iran.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said the Indian government's decision to permit one of the warships, IRIS Lavan, to dock at Kochi was 'the right thing to do'.
IRIS Lavan's crew is currently in Indian naval facilities, and the Iranian foreign minister has expressed thanks for the 'humane gesture'.
The sinking of IRIS Dena marked an expansion of the Iran-US conflict to India's strategic backyard, raising concerns about the economic fallout of the war, especially for energy supplies from West Asia.
