Modi, Jaishankar work the phones, call for dialogue as strikes on energy infrastructure escalate

Modi and Jaishankar advocate for dialogue as India and France collaborate to de-escalate tensions amid escalating strikes on energy infrastructure.

India and France are “working closely together” to de-escalate tensions in West Asia, French President Emmanuel Macron said, after a conversation with Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday (March 19, 2026), one of many calls that Mr. Modi and External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar made to leaders worldwide.

As Israel and Iran both stepped up attacks on energy installations and gas fields across the Gulf region, the government said this targeting of civilian infrastructure was “deeply disturbing” and “unacceptable”, calling for them to stop. 

In the past, New Delhi had condemned Iran’s attacks on Gulf states, but not the strikes by the United States and Israel. Just last week, India had co-sponsored a UN Security Council resolution that only condemned strikes by Iran on its neighbours. In a marked shift, however, the government is now emphasising the need to avoid attacking civilian infrastructure “across the region”.

“Recent attacks against energy installations in different locations across this region are deeply disturbing and only serve to further destabilise an already uncertain energy scenario for the whole world,” the MEA’s official spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal said on Thursday, broad-basing India’s concerns.

The attacks marked a major escalation in the ongoing war in West Asia, with Israeli missiles striking Iran’s largest gas field in South Pars, and Iran’s retaliatory strikes targeting Qatar’s Ras Laffan gas plant, and oil and gas facilities in Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and the UAE.

Speaking to Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani, the Amir of Qatar, PM Modi said India stands in solidarity with Qatar, that suffered major losses from the Iranian strikes on the Ras Laffan gas facility, and “strongly condemns the attacks on the region’s energy infrastructure”.