Hmmm.....
Rest of World News: A Chinese-owned oil tanker was attacked off Yemen Saturday by ballistic missiles fired by Huthi rebels, who have intensified strikes on Red Sea shippi
timesofindia.indiatimes.com
Then what is this ?
The Iran-backed Houthi militia in Yemen has caused disruptions in global trade flow due to their attacks in the Red Sea. The Suez Canal, used by ships for 12% of global trade, is currently blocked due to hostilities, redirecting ships to pass through Africa. Capital goods and fertilisers are the...
www.google.com
Elaborate
I agree that Houthis have been a bit arbitrary and random. However, that is likely due to poor ISR capability rather than intentional. Yes, some eastern ships may be hit but they will be just 10% of what western ships will face and that means over time, it is advantage for east
The Houthis may not target an Indian-flagged ship but it won't really matter because most of the Indian trade is facilitated by ships flying the flags of countries such as Marshall Islands, Singapore, Panama, Liberia, Gabon, etc. because of their lax regulations for shipping companies.
IMEC absolutely is important to India since it provides a much shorter alternative route to the Suez Canal as opposed to the current alternative route of having to go around the full length of the African coast via the Cape of Good Hope route. Just open a map to see the difference.
Yes, Houthis are not very sharp and due to the recent strategy of the west to keep changing ownership of the ships at short intervals and using shell companies to buy the ships, Houthis are even more confused and can hit the wrong target at times. But the proportion of attacks are severely skewed towards NATO countries.
As for IMEC, India-israel trade is minimal in nature. Most of the high value transaction is military equipments which can be transported in cargo planes too as though they are expensive, they are not weighing hundreds of tons. The actual loss of having to go across Africa into israel is minimal as the amount of bulk shipment is low.
They are targeting anything because they don’t have any significant isr capability. They have attacked both Russian and Chinese ships intact literally right after they promised the Chinese they won’t.
Agreed, but as I mentioned above, the proportion of attacks is skewed