India on Monday said it had not had bilateral discussions with the US on deploying warships in the Strait of Hormuz, but did not clarify whether Washington had sought its help to force open the key shipping lane controlled by Iran and Oman.

“We are aware of this particular matter being discussed by several countries. We have not yet discussed it in (a) bilateral setting,” external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.

He had been asked whether the US had approached India with President Donald Trump’s call to countries to send warships to reopen the Strait and allow ships safe passage.

Trump has stepped up pressure on America’s European allies to help protect ships seeking to use the Strait, with Iran having threatened to fire at ships belonging to the US, Israel and their partners if they try to use this channel.

New Delhi had late last week managed to get Iran to provide safe passage, as a special arrangement, to two ships carrying LPG to India. One of the two ships arrived at Mundra on Monday, and the other is expected to reach Kandla on Tuesday.

External affairs minister S. Jaishankar on Sunday told the British newspaper Financial Times that India did not have a “blanket arrangement” with Iran for the safe passage of Indian-flagged ships through the Strait of Hormuz.

But he maintained that the safe passage for the two ships was “not an exchange issue”, either, denying that Iran had got something in return.

“Every ship movement is an individual happening,” Jaishankar told FT in the interview, given during his Brussels visit.

He cited a “history of dealing with each other… which is the basis on which I engaged…. These are still early days. We have many more ships there. So while this is a welcome development, there is continuing conversation because there is continued work on that”.

Some 22 Indian-flagged ships — six of them LPG carriers — are still on the Iran-controlled and bottlenecked western side of Hormuz, awaiting passage.

Asked about the status of these bulk carriers, Jaiswal said at the inter-ministerial briefing that “we continue with our discussions with several stakeholders in this regard”.

Jaishankar-EU meet

Jaishankar met with his counterparts from the 27 member states of the European Union (EU) in Brussels, focusing on global flashpoints in Ukraine and West Asia as well as ways to deepen India’s relations with Europe.

Jaishankar is on a two-day visit to the Belgian capital at the invitation of EU foreign and security policy chief Kaja Kallas to attend a meeting of the bloc’s foreign affairs council. It is the first high-level visit from India to the EU after the two sides firmed up a free trade agreement in January.

“Discussed the West Asia conflict, the Ukraine situation and the Indo-Pacific in today’s gathering,” Jaishankar posted on social media.

The foreign affairs council discussed how to better protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, including possible contributions by the EU’s naval mission, Aspides, and a European security strategy, Kallas told reporters.

Additional reporting by PTI