At Parliament panel meeting, MPs emphasise need of evacuating Indians caught up in Israel-Iran conflict

New Delhi [India], June 17 (ANI): The issue of the safety of Indians caught up in the Iran-Israel conflict and the need for evacuation was raised at the meeting of the Standing Committee on External Affairs on Tuesday by some MPs.
Talking to reporters after the meeting, Chairman of the Committee, Shashi Tharoor said that there will be very important conversations during the G7 Summit in Canada, which is being attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
"The G7 are no longer the seven largest economies in the world because India and China are there and should be part of the G7 by that logic. But still, they're very influential countries. They have very good coordination amongst themselves. And for our Prime Minister to have an opportunity to talk to them, to have a role with them, to let his concerns be shared with them is always very important. There's nothing that we need to worry about," Tharoor said.
"I'm sure that while the Prime Minister is there, very important conversations will take place and we'll hear about them when the Foreign Secretary is back from the trip," he added.
Answering a question on the Israel-Iran confrontation, Tharoor said that was not on the agenda today.
"But one concern that some MPs raised was about the safety of Indians caught up in this conflict and the need for evacuation. We've been promised a detailed reply by the Ministry on that," he said.
The Ministry of External Affairs said on Tuesday that Indian students in Tehran have been moved out of the city for reasons of safety, through arrangements made by the Embassy.
Other residents who are self-sufficient in terms of transport have also been advised to move out of the city in view of the developing situation.
Separately, some Indians have been facilitated to leave Iran through the border with Armenia, it said in a statement.
"The Embassy remains continuously in touch with the community with a view to extending all feasible assistance. Further advisories may be issued given the fluid situation," the statement added.
At its meeting, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on External Affairs discussed India's Indian Ocean Strategy including the idea of the Blue Water Navy.
Tharoor said that Operation Sindoor was not discussed, but some of the elements that became apparent during that confrontation came up in conversations.
Apart from the members, the meeting was attended by Defence Secretary, Secretary (East) in MEA and Vice Chief of Navy.
The agenda of the meeting was 'Evaluation of India's Indian Ocean Strategy' with representatives of the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Defence to give oral evidence for examination of the subject.
Tharoor described the discussion as "outstanding" and said every one of the committee members present asked questions.
"We had an ongoing subject called India's Indian Ocean Strategy, which is a foreign policy subject that has important defence dimensions. We also had the Defence Secretary and the Navy present to brief us. The discussions were outstanding. We spent more than two-and-a-half hours in serious conversation on various aspects, which you will see in the report submitted to Parliament. We were blessed to have the Vice Chief of the Navy, the Defence Secretary, and the Secretary East of the Ministry of External Affairs. It was a very thorough discussion," Tharoor said.
"Every single one of the committee members present asked questions... It's a tremendous sense of involvement in this discussion. We'll have a good report coming out of this very comprehensive discussion... All of this (Blue Water Navy) was discussed... The whole idea of the Blue Water Navy, our military capacity beyond that, everything was thoroughly discussed," he added.
The MPs present at the meeting included BJP's Nishikant Dubey, Arun Govil and RPN Singh and Congress MP KC Venugopal.
The Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES) had last month hosted the "Second Blue Talks" in the national capital. The event was hosted in collaboration with the Embassy of France and the Embassy of Costa Rica in India. (ANI)