In the next phase of Samudra Setu, Indian Naval Ship Shardul will evacuate Indian citizens on 08 June 2020 from the port of Bandar Abbas, Islamic Republic of Iran, to Porbandar, Gujarat. The Indian Mission in Islamic Republic of Iran is preparing a list of Indian citizens to be evacuated and will facilitate their embarkation after requisite medical screening.

COVID-related social distancing norms have been catered onboard INS Shardul and the ship has been specially provisioned for the evacuation operation, including embarkation of additional medical staff, doctors, hygienists, nutritionists, medical stores, rations, personal protective equipment, face-masks, lifesaving gear etc. In addition to authorised medical outfit, medical equipment specific to dealing with COVID-19 including innovative products developed by the Indian Navy during the ongoing COVID-19 crisis is also being carried onboard.

The evacuated personnel would be provided the basic amenities and medical facilities whilst undertaking the sea-passage to Porbandar. Special isolation compartments have also been earmarked for any contingencies. In view of the unique challenges associated with COVID-19 including asymptomatic carriers, stringent protocols are being stipulated during the passage.

After disembarkation at Porbandar, the evacuated personnel will be entrusted to the care of State authorities. Meanwhile The Government of India in these difficult times is providing assistance to Friendly Foreign Countries in dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic and towards the same INS Kesari is carrying a consignment of COVID related essential medicines for the people of Seychelles.

An official ceremony for handing over the medicines from the Government of India to Government of Seychelles was held on 07 June 2020. Secretary of state for Foreign Affairs, H.E Ambassador Barry Faure and Secretary of State for Health, H.E Ambassador Marie Pierre Lloyd, represented the Government of Seychelles at the ceremony. The Indian side was represented by the High Commissioner of India to Seychelles, H.E General Dalbir Singh Suhag PVSM, UYSM, AVSM, VSM (Retd) and the Second Secretary to HCI, Mr Ashwin Bhaskaran.

The assistance to Seychelles is a part of the Government of India outreach amidst the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. ‘Mission Sagar’ builds on the excellent relations existing between the two countries to battle the COVID-19 pandemic and its resultant difficulties. The deployment also resonates the vision of our Prime Minister of Security and Growth for All in the Region ‘SAGAR’ and highlights the importance accorded by India to relations with the countries in the IOR. The operation is being progressed in close coordination with the Ministry of External Affairs, and other agencies of the Government of India.

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In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, the Ministry of External Affairs said the total number of Indians infected by corona virus overseas is 276 – 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE, five in Italy, and one each in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.

“The Indian Embassies in the respective countries are in touch with such Indian citizens regarding appropriate medical attention in cooperation with local authorities,” he said.

The Indians in Iran were part of a delegation of over 800 from Kargil in Ladakh, who have been stuck in Iran since February. Most of them are stranded in hotels and other accommodation in Qom, one of the areas in Iran worst affected by the corona virus outbreak.

A fourth batch of 53 Indians returned to India from Iran on Monday, taking the total number of people evacuated from the corona virus-hit country to 389.

Iran is one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus outbreak and the government has been working to bring back Indians stranded there. Over 700 people have died from the disease in Iran and nearly 14,000 cases detected.

Corona virus has infected nearly 2 lakh people worldwide and nearly 150 in India, where three people have died.

The government has already taken measures including suspending most visas into the country. On Monday it expanded travel restrictions, banning passengers from countries of the European Union and European Free Trade Association, Turkey and the United Kingdom – including its own citizens.

It has also closed down schools, cinemas, malls, gyms and major tourist sites including the Taj Mahal, while most major cities asked offices providing non-essential services to keep their staff at home in increased measures to curb the COVID-19 pandemic in India.

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“All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/international organizations, employment, project visas, stand suspended till 15th April 2020,” it said in the statement.

The order will come into effect from 1200 GMT on March 13.

The decision was taken at the meeting of group of ministers held here under the chairmanship of Health Minister Harsh Vardhan.

“All existing visas, except diplomatic, official, UN/International organisations, employment and project visas stand suspended till 15th April 2020. This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure,” the statement said.

Visa-free travel facility granted to OCI card holders is also kept in abeyance till April 15.

Any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason may contact the nearest Indian Mission, the release said, adding that all incoming travellers, including Indian nationals, arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain and Germany after February 15 will be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days.

Over 1,18,000 positive cases have been reported globally across 114 countries.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) on March 11 said that according to its assessment, COVID-19 “can be characterised as a pandemic.”

“WHO has been assessing this outbreak round-the-clock and we are deeply concerned both by the alarming levels of spread and severity, and by the alarming levels of inaction,” it said.

“Pandemic is not a word to use lightly or carelessly. It is a word that, if misused, can cause unreasonable fear, or unjustified acceptance that the fight is over, leading to unnecessary suffering and death,” said WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus.

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• This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure.

• Visa free travel facility granted to OCI card holders is kept in abeyance till April 15th 2020.

• This will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure.

• Any foreign national who intends to travel to India for compelling reason may contact the nearest Indian Mission.

• All incoming travelers, including Indians, arriving from or having visited China, Italy, Iran, Republic of Korea, France, Spain & Germany after 15th Feb, 2020 shall be quarantined for a minimum period of 14 days.

• The above will come into effect from 1200 GMT on 13th March 2020 at the port of departure.

• Incoming travelers, including Indian nationals, are advised to avoid non-essential travel and are informed that they can be quarantined for a minimum of 14 days on their arrival in India.

• Indian nationals are strongly advised to avoid all non-essential travel abroad. On their return, they can be subjected to quarantine for a minimum of 14 days.

• International traffic through land borders will be restricted to Designated check posts with robust screening facilities.

• These will be notified separately by M/o Home Affairs.

• Provision for testing primarily for students / compassionate cases in Italy Italy to be made and collection for samples to be organized accordingly.

• Those tested negative will be allowed to travel and will be quarantined on arrival in India for 14 days.

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Six more cases have tested positive in Agra, Uttar Pradesh having contact history with case in Delhi. Required action as per Cluster Management plan has been initiated. Further, an Italian Tourist & his wife have tested positive in Rajasthan. 14 other accompanying tourists in this group and their Indian bus driver tested positive on their return to Delhi. All of them are reported to be stable. A recent positive case has also been reported in Delhi yesterday (having travel history from Italy) and is stable.

The ever increasing magnitude of this outbreak globally calls for a concerted effort by not only health but all sectors of Government. Honourable Prime Minister is personally monitoring the preparedness and response on a regular basis .Government of India has initiated a series of action to prevent entry of the disease and to contain it. I am daily reviewing the situation. A Group of Ministers consisting of Minister of External Affairs, Minister of Civil Aviation and Minister of State for Home Affairs, Minister of State for Shipping and Minister of State for Health & Family Welfare chaired by me have been constituted to monitor the situation.

The Group of Ministers has met four times since its inception on 3rd February, 2020. Cabinet Secretary is taking regular reviews with all related Ministries of Health, Defence, Ministry of External Affairs, Civil Aviation, Home, Textiles, Pharma, Commerce and other officials including with State Chief Secretaries. My own Ministry is constantly reviewing the evolving scenario. Video Conferences are being held with States every other day.

Government of India has also taken several measures to control the risk of novel Corona virus infection spreading to India. Our First Travel Advisory was issued on 17th January 2020 and as situation is evolving, the travel advisories are accordingly getting revised.

Presently it prescribes, All regular (sticker) Visas/e-Visa (including Visa on Arrival for Japan and South Korea) granted to nationals of Italy, Iran, South Korea, Japan and issued on or before 03.03.2020 and who have not yet entered India, stand suspended with immediate effect.

Regular (sticker) visa / e-Visa granted to nationals of Peoples Republic of China, issued on or before 05.02.2020 were suspended earlier. It shall remain in force.

Regular (sticker) visas/e-Visas granted to all foreign nationals who have travelled to Peoples Republic of China, Iran, Italy, South Korea and Japan on or after 01.02.2020, and who have not yet entered India stand suspended with immediate effect.

Diplomats, officials of UN and other International bodies, OCI cardholders and Aircrew from above countries are exempted from such restriction on entry. However, their screening at point of entry is compulsory.

Passengers of all international flights entering into India from any port are required to furnish duly filled self-declaration form (including personal particulars i.e. phone no. and address in India) and travel history, to Health Officials and Immigration officials at all ports.

Indian citizens are advised to refrain from travel to China, Iran, Republic of Korea, Italy & Japan and advised to avoid non-essential travel to other COVID-19 affected countries.

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“India’s efforts remain focused on peace and stability in the region and this has been reflected in Prime Minister Narendra Modi and external affairs minister S Jaishankar’s outreach to all the key players in recent days says diplomatic sources.

About 25,000 Indians are working across Iraq, mainly in infrastructure and oil sectors. Erbil, the capital of northern autonomous region of Kurdistan has the highest number of Indians.

Since Sunday, Jaishankar has spoken to both US secretary of state Mike Pompeo and Iranian foreign minister Javad Zarif and the foreign ministers of the UAE, Qatar, Oman and Jordan to discuss ways to reduce the tensions and to work for de-escalation. PM Modi has also discussed the issue with US President Donald Trump during a phone call on Tuesday.

India’s efforts are aimed at ensuring energy security and protecting the interests of some 8 million expatriates in West Asia, including more than 2.5 million in Saudi Arabia alone. Any confrontation between Iran and the US is bound to affect sea routes in the Persian Gulf and hit oil prices and supplies.

The UN has unofficially advised India’s Ambassador to Iraq to not allow more Indians to the country till the situation is back to normal. The mission is still assessing the situation and is expected to take the call soon

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The online statement came hours after Iranian state television said they had launched missiles at US targets in the early hours of Wednesday in retaliation for the US killing last week of top military commander solemani .

“Between 1:45am and 2:15am [22:45 GMT and 23:15 GM] Iraq was hit by 22 missiles, 17 on the Ain al-Asad airbase and … five on the city of Erbil,” the Iraqi military said.

“There were no victims among the Iraqi forces,” it added, without mentioning whether or not there were casualties among foreign troops.

Following the strikes, US President trump said on Twitter that an “assessment of casualties & damages taking place now”.

“So far, so good!” he wrote.

More than 5,000 US troops remain in Iraq along with other foreign forces as part of a coalition that has trained and backed up Iraqi security forces in the fight against the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL or ISIS) armed group.

Some 115 German soldiers are stationed in Erbil and all were fine, a spokesman for Bundeswehr operations said.

Denmark, which has about 130 soldiers in Iraq, said no Danish soldiers were wounded or killed in the attack on Ain al-Asad, the largest airbase where US-led coalition troops are based.

It was the first time Iran directly hit a US installation with ballistic missiles.

Soleimani, who headed Iran’s Quds Force, the overseas arm of the elite Revolutionary Guards Corps, was buried after the missile attacks, Iranian state television said.

Iranian state television said on Wednesday that at least 80 “American terrorists” were killed in attacks involving 15 missiles Tehran launched on U.S. targets in Iraq, adding that none of the missiles were intercepted.

State TV, citing a senior Revolutionary Guards source, also said Iran had 100 other targets in the region in its sights if Washington took any retaliatory measures. It also said U.S. helicopters and military equipment were “severely damaged”. It did not provide evidence of how it obtained that information.

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Iranian state TV says the attack is a retaliation after the country’s top commander Qasem Soleimani was killed in a drone strike in Baghdad, on the orders of US President Donald Trump.

The Pentagon says at least two sites were attacked, in Irbil and Al Asad.

It is unclear if there have been any casualties.

“We are aware of the reports of attacks on US facilities in Iraq. The president has been briefed and is monitoring the situation closely and consulting with his national security team,” White House spokeswoman Stephanie Grisham said in a statement.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guard said the attack was in retaliation for the death of Soleimani on Friday.

“We are warning all American allies, who gave their bases to its terrorist army, that any territory that is the starting point of aggressive acts against Iran will be targeted,” it said via a statement carried by Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency.

Iranian Foreign Minister Javad Zarif later issued a statement on Twitter, claiming the attack was self-defence and denied seeking to escalate the situation into war.

Iran has launched atteck on U.S.-led forces in Iraq, the U.S. military said on Tuesday, adding Tehran fired more than a dozen ballistic missiles from Iranian territory against at least two Iraqi military bases hosting U.S.-led coalition personnel.

“We are working on initial battle damage assessments,” Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Hoffman said in statement, adding that the bases targeted were at Al-Asad air base and another in Erbil, Iraq.

At least six rockets landed on Wednesday at Iraq’s Ain Al-Asad air base that hosts US Forces, according to -Al Mayadeen TV. Ain al-Asad airbase is located in the western Anbar province.

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“We have a very extraordinarily expensive air base that’s there. It cost billions of dollars to build, long before my time. We’re not leaving unless they pay us back for it,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One.
Trump said that if Iraq asked US forces to leave and it was not done on a friendly basis, “we will charge them sanctions like they’ve never seen before ever. It’ll make Iranian sanctions look somewhat tame.”
After his top diplomat, Mike Pompeo, had insisted that any military action would conform to international law, Trump said he would regard cultural sites as fair game if Iran resorted to deadly force against US targets.

“They’re allowed to kill our people, they’re allowed to torture and maim our people, they’re allowed to use roadside bombs and blow up our people and we’re not allowed to touch their cultural site? It doesn’t work that way,” Trump told reporters. “If they do anything there will be major retaliation.”
His comments on his return from a break in Florida followed a welter of criticism over a tweet on Saturday night in which he said sites which were “important to… Iranian culture” were on a list of 52 potential US targets.

Tehran’s foreign minister had reacted to those initial comments by drawing parallels with the Islamic State group’s destruction of the Middle East’s cultural heritage.

And as Twitter was flooded with photos of revered Iranian landmarks in ancient cities such as Isfahan under the hashtag #IranianCulturalSites, leading US Democrats said the president would be in breach of international protocols if he made good on his threat.

“You are threatening to commit war crimes,” Senator Elizabeth Warren, one of the top Democrats hoping to challenge Trump in November’s election, wrote on Twitter.

“We are not at war with Iran. The American people do not want a war with Iran.”

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The Hashed’s deputy chief was also killed in the attack, the force added, which comes after a pro-Iran mob this week laid siege to the US embassy following deadly American air strikes on a hardline Hashed faction.
“The deputy head of the Hashed, Abu Mahdi al-Muhandis, and head of the Quds Force, Qasem Soleimani, were killed in a US strike that targeted their car on the Baghdad International Airport road,” the Hashed said in a statement early Friday.

The airport was hit in a volley of missiles just after midnight, Iraq’s military had announced.
Security sources told AFP the bombardment hit a Hashed convoy and killed eight people, including “important figures.”

The Hashed is a network of mostly-Shiite armed units, many of whom have very close ties to Tehran but which have been officially incorporated into Iraq’s state security forces.

The units joined forces to fight the Islamic State group in 2014 but many of them had built up years of fighting experience during Iraq’s war years, including against the US.

Muhandis is the Hashed’s deputy chief but widely recognised as the real shot-caller within the group.

Soleimani heads the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps’ Quds Force and also serves as Iran’s pointman on Iraq, visiting the country in times of turmoil.

Both have been sanctioned by the United States.

There was no immediate comment from the US on the developments, which come after an unprecedented attack on its mission in Baghdad.

A mob of Hashed supporters surrounded the US embassy on Tuesday in outrage over American air strikes that killed 25 fighters from the network’s hardline Kataeb Hezbollah faction, which is backed by Iran.
The US had acted in response to a rocket attack days earlier that had killed an American contractor working in Iraq.

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