Pakistan summons Indian envoy after navy ship makes contact with Pakistani vessel in EEZ

Pakistan has formally protested to India over an incident in which an Indian Navy vessel came into contact with a Pakistani naval ship inside Pakistan's Exclusive Economic Zone on September 15, the Foreign Office said on Wednesday, describing the Indian action as highly provocative and unacceptable.

Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said the Indian high commission's charge d'affaires in Islamabad was summoned to receive the protest. Pakistan's own charge d'affaires in New Delhi will deliver the same demarche to India's Ministry of External Affairs.

According to the Foreign Office, the Pakistan Navy was carrying out its biennial SEASPARK-26 exercise when the Indian ship manoeuvred aggressively and dangerously close to a Pakistani vessel, leading to contact between the two.

The spokesperson said the incident violated international law and the 1991 bilateral agreement on advance notice of military exercises, manoeuvres and troop movements, and risked raising tensions in the region. India was urged to abide strictly by international law and by agreements meant to prevent incidents at sea.

Pakistan also asked the international community to press India to give up what it called a belligerent posture, saying South Asia could not remain hostage to reckless conduct.

It is the first open military friction between the two nuclear-armed neighbours since their four-day conflict in May 2025, which began with Indian strikes on May 6 and 7 after an attack in Pahalgam and ended with a US-brokered ceasefire on May 10 following Pakistan's Operation Bunyanum Marsoos.