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LONDON: Armed assailants attacked a commercial tanker off the coast of Mogadishu on Monday, firing at the vessel after attempting to board the ship in the first suspected Somali piracy incident of its kind since 2024, maritime sources said.

If confirmed, this would be the first Somali piracy attack against a merchant ship since May 2024, raising risks for critical energy and goods transported through the region, maritime sources said.

The vessel was sailing some 615 km off the Somali coast when four armed attackers approached in a skiff from the starboard side and opened fire, British maritime risk management group Vanguard said in a note.

“The crew raised the alarm, increased speed, and conducted evasive maneuvers. The embarked armed security team onboard responded effectively, deterring the attack and preventing any damage or injury.”

Vanguard and a maritime security source said the vessel targeted was the Cayman Islands-flagged chemical tanker Stolt Sagaland.

The vessel’s operator, Stolt-Nielsen, confirmed there was an attempted attack on the Stolt Sagaland early on Nov. 3, which was unsuccessful.

“Our crew is all safe, having responded swiftly and professionally to the incident,” the company said.

The EU’s naval mission said it was investigating the incident. The naval force said on Oct. 28 it had received an alert about the possible presence of a pirate action group around the Somali coast.

“Ships required to transit the area are advised to (exercise) extreme caution, maintain full vigilance,” the EU’s force said.

Sailings through the Red Sea, which leads into the Gulf of Aden, have slumped since Yemen’s Iran-affiliated Houthi militia first launched attacks on commercial ships in November 2023 in solidarity with Palestinians over Israel’s war in Gaza.

While the Houthis have agreed to a truce on targeting US-linked shipping, many shipping companies remain wary of resuming voyages through those waters.

NEW DELHI: Indian Foreign Minister S. Jaishankar on Monday sought Bahrain’s support in advancing India’s engagement with the Gulf Cooperation Council as he received his Bahraini counterpart, Abdullatif Al-Zayani, in New Delhi.

Al-Zayani arrived in India on Sunday to co-chair with Jaishankar the fifth session of the India-Bahrain High Joint Commission, which was established in 2018 as the top institutional mechanism to strengthen bilateral relations.

“Since our last HJC meeting we have made significant progress bilaterally in defense, security, trade and commerce, health, culture and people-to-people ties. But there are new areas such as space, fintech and technology that hold considerable promise for our partnership,” Jaishankar told Al-Zayani in his opening remarks.

“We look forward to your support for further intensifying India-GCC cooperation,” Jaishankar said.

India has been pursuing a free trade pact with the GCC for the past two decades. A Framework Agreement on Economic Cooperation was signed in 2004 but two rounds of negotiations — in 2006 and 2008 — were inconclusive.

The GCC’s secretary-general announced at the beginning of 2025 that the bloc was set to start free trade negotiations with India this year.

The agreement would give India access to a large and affluent market for its goods and also concessions on visas in a region which is second home to some 9 million Indian expat workers.

Bahrain will host and assume the presidency of the Supreme Council of the GCC at the upcoming summit in Manama next month. The presidency gives it a platform to highlight collective GCC responses and cooperation mechanisms.

“We aspire to enhance greater connectivity between India and our broader region,” Al-Zayani said during the meeting with Jaishankar.

“In alignment with the high-level commitment from our leadership to this significant partnership, I would like to emphasize Bahrain’s dedication to deepening our relationship with the Republic of India.”

In a statement after the HJC meeting, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs said it had discussed efforts to strengthen cooperation in the fields of healthcare, including in health services, medical care, clinical research, pharmaceuticals and medical devices.

During the commission’s previous meeting in Manama last year, India and Bahrain agreed to broaden cooperation in the education sector, with the Indian side inviting more Bahraini students to pursue higher studies at the country’s top institutions.

Nearly 332,000 Indian nationals live in Bahrain, making up almost a quarter of the country’s 1.5 million population.