India denies its ports are being used by US Navy
New Delhi has refuted a report suggesting that American warships are refueling in the South Asian country as “fake and false”
India has denied a claim that US naval ships are using its ports amid the war in Iran.
Earlier this week, former US Army Colonel Douglas Macgregor told One America News Network (OAN) that Washington was “falling back” on India.
“All of our bases have been destroyed,” Macgregor said. “Our harbor installations are destroyed. We are actually having to fall back on India and Indian ports, which is less than ideal; that is what the navy says.”
His comments, which came a few days before the US sank an Iranian warship off Sri Lanka’s coast, were firmly rejected by India.
“Claims being made on OAN, a US-based channel that Indian ports are being used by the US Navy are fake and false,” the Indian Foreign Ministry’s fact check handle posted on X on Wednesday night. “We caution you against such baseless and fabricated comments.”
Fake News Alert!
— MEA FactCheck (@MEAFactCheck) March 4, 2026
Claims being made on OAN, a US based channel that Indian ports are being used by the US Navy are fake and false. We caution you against such baseless and fabricated comments. pic.twitter.com/xiFWnkoXBk
A US submarine torpedoed and sank the IRIS Dena in the Indian Ocean, off the coast of Sri Lanka on Wednesday, killing 87 of its crew.
The vessel was returning from Visakhapatnam, India after participating in the International Fleet Review and the Indian Navy’s International Fleet Review and Milan-2026 multilateral maritime exercise.
In 2016, India and the US signed the Logistics Exchange Memorandum of Agreement (LEMOA), a pact that enables reciprocal, case-by-case logistical support, refueling, and replenishment for armed forces.
“Iranian missiles have pushed the US navy close to Indian waters,” geopolitical expert Zorawar Daulet Singh wrote on X. “This is precisely one of the scenarios for which the US signed the LEMOA (logistics agreement) with India. But the repercussions for India to be even an inadvertent war party in an aggressive and unprovoked intervention by the US would be dangerous.”
Journalist and author Praveen Swami also commented on the US actions in what many consider ‘India’s backyard.’ “The decent thing – though not legally obligatory – would have been to notify India and Iran that the IRNS Dina could be targeted while sailing home from Visakhapatnam,” he wrote on X. “Then, its captain may have chosen to shelter in a neutral port.”
India has called for a “cessation of hostilities” in the Middle East.