New Delhi: India and the US have not bilaterally discussed Washington’s demand that certain countries affected by Iran’s chokehold over the Strait of Hormuz send warships to help police the bottleneck, the external affairs ministry said on Monday (March 16).Meanwhile an official Indian source on Monday denied a report saying New Delhi and Tehran are discussing the return of vessels seized by India last month in exchange for Tehran’s safe passage to Indian-flagged vessels through the strait that is key to India’s energy security.Asked during the daily inter-ministerial briefing on the impact of the West Asia conflict whether India was approached by the US to send warships to help ensure the Strait of Hormuz remains open, the external affairs ministry said the two sides have not bilaterally discussed Washington’s demand.“We are aware of this particular matter being discussed by several countries. We have not yet discussed it in a bilateral setting,” spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said.US President Donald Trump said he has asked about seven countries to participate in a coalition that would help oil tankers navigate the Strait of Hormuz, which Iran says is only cut off for Washington, Israel and their allies.In addition to China, Japan and South Korea, he has made appeals for help to Britain and France. However there is little inclination to heed Trump’s call: Beijing is noncommittal. Paris is a maybe on escorting ships, when “circumstances permit”. Whitehall is unlikely to dispatch a warship – Prime Minister Keir Starmer has said the UK is working with allies on a plan to reopen the strait but that “we will not be drawn into the wider war”.“I’m demanding that these [seven] countries come in and protect their own territory, because it is their territory, it’s the place from which they get their energy … they should come and they should help us protect it. You could make the case that maybe we shouldn’t even be there at all because we don’t need it. We have a lot of oil,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on Sunday referring to the Strait of Hormuz.Amid Trump’s call for warships to keep the strait open, India’s approach on the other hand appears to involve direct talks with Tehran. External affairs minister S. Jaishankar said on Sunday that this route was the one “yielding results” for him.“I am at the moment engaged in talking to them and my talking has yielded some results. This is ongoing. If it is yielding results for me, I would naturally continue to look at it,” Jaishankar told the Financial Times in Brussels, where he has travelled to attend a meeting of the EU’s foreign ministers.Citing India’s securing permission from Iran for the Indian-flagged Shivalik and Nanda Devi gas tankers – amid an LPG crisis at home – to traverse the Hormuz as an example of what such diplomacy could come to bear, he went on to suggest that this approach of ‘reasoning’ and ‘co-ordinating’ with Tehran could be adopted by Europe in turn.“So if that sort of allows other people to engage, I think the world is better off for it … I’d be happy to share with [EU capitals] what we are doing … I know many of them have had conversations [with Tehran] as well,” he told FT on Sunday.Jaishankar clarified that India did not receive “blanket permission” for Indian vessels. “Every ship movement is an individual happening,” according to him. He also denied any elements of quid pro quo between New Delhi and Tehran, telling the newspaper that the two sides’ “history of dealing with each other” was “the basis on which I engaged”. “It’s not an exchange issue.”This was reiterated by the external affairs ministry during Monday’s inter-ministerial press briefing when it was asked what Iran may be seeking in exchange for granting free passage to Indian-flagged ships.However, later in the day Reuters reported citing three sources that Tehran was indeed asking for something in exchange: that New Delhi release three tankers that Indian authorities had seized last month for alleged involvement in illegal ship-to-ship transfers.Tehran also asked that India provide Iran with medicines and medical equipment, the news agency’s Saurabh Sharma and Krishna Das reported.An Indian government source denied that such discussions took place. “This report is baseless. There has been no discussion of this nature between Indian and Iranian authorities. In any case, the three vessels are not Iranian owned,” they said.According to Reuters, the Indian Coast Guard in a complaint filed on February 15 alleged that the Nicaraguan-flagged Asphalt Star vessel was involved in the smuggling of heavy fuel oil that was loaded onto the Malian-flagged Al Jafzia and of bitumen that was transferred to the Iranian-flagged Stellar Ruby. The ships were also accused of hiding or altering their identity and movements.Al Jafzia carried fuel oil from Iran to Djibouti last year, Reuters had reported last month. The trio of vessels share the same International Maritime Organisation numbers as three vessels that the US treasury department had sanctioned in connection with its measures targeting trade in Iranian petrol, the news agency added.With inputs from AP.