New Delhi: After phoning UAE President Mohamed bin Zayed al Nahyan for the second time since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday (March 17) said the two leaders “agreed on the importance of ensuring safe and free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz”.Referring once again to al Nahyan as his “brother” and wishing him “advance Eid greetings”, Modi also reiterated his “strong condemnation” – without directly naming Tehran – Iran’s attacks on the UAE that have resulted in civilian deaths and damage to infrastructure.“We agreed on the importance of ensuring safe and free navigation through the Strait of Hormuz,” Modi wrote on X, adding that the two countries would “continue to work together for the early restoration of peace, security and stability in the region”.Iran’s retaliatory blockade of the strait that is key to global energy security has disrupted supplies of LPG, LNG and crude oil to import-dependent India, with shortages of cooking gas in particular hitting the hospitality sector and even impacting domestic consumers.Amid US President Donald Trump’s call for certain countries dependent on the strait to help ensure the free flow of traffic via the bottleneck, Reuters has reported that the UAE is considering taking part in such an effort. Anwar Gargash, who is diplomatic adviser to al Nahyan, has also said that “we all have a responsibility to ensure the flow of trade” and energy.However Trump on Tuesday while noting a lack of interest among most NATO allies declared that the US does “not need the help of anyone”. India has said it has not discussed his proposal in a bilateral setting with D.C.Modi’s phone call with al Nahyan also comes as BRICS under India’s current chairship has yet to issue a joint statement on the West Asia conflict triggered by the US-Israeli attacks on Iran. The Indian government, which has suggested that Tehran and Abu Dhabi’s presence together in the bloc has been a source of difficulty on this front, reiterated that it is engaging with all stakeholders on the matter.Asked during the daily inter-ministerial press conference on Tuesday what progress New Delhi has made in ‘bridging the gap’ between Tehran and Abu Dhabi within the bloc, external affairs ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said the fact that there are “several members of BRICS who are involved” in the conflict has made it “difficult” to achieve common ground between the “positions that countries have taken”.“But we remain … engaged with all the stakeholders,” he added.Jaiswal had made the same argument last week, two days after Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian during his first phone call amid the conflict with Modi said it is “essential” that BRICS “play a constructive role … in supporting regional and global stability and security”.Modi has spoken to his counterparts in the Gulf countries multiple times since the US-Israeli strikes on Iran began on February 28 and has expressed condemnation of Tehran’s attacks on their soil albeit without naming it.He also phoned Pezeshkian for the first time since the conflict broke out on Thursday but is yet to condemn the US and Israel’s strikes or their assassination of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.