Al-Alimi Tells Outgoing Indian Envoy Red Sea Security Is a Shared International Responsibility

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President Dr. Rashad al-Alimi, chairman of Yemen’s Presidential Leadership Council, received India’s Ambassador Suhel Ajaz Khan in Riyadh to bid him farewell at the end of the envoy’s tenure. The president praised the efforts Ambassador Khan made during his diplomatic mission to Yemen and wished him success in the next stage of his career, while expressing thanks to the Republic of India for what he described as its balanced positions in support of Yemen’s stability, unity, sovereignty and territorial integrity.

Ambassador Khan, a career diplomat, has served as India’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia while concurrently accredited to Yemen, an arrangement that reflects the realities of a country whose internationally recognized leadership conducts much of its diplomacy from Riyadh and Aden. He presented his credentials to President al-Alimi in Aden in August 2024 and is returning to the Ministry of External Affairs headquarters in New Delhi after completing his assignment.

In their meeting, al-Alimi stressed the importance of continued coordination between Yemen and India in regional and international forums, above all on the protection of vital maritime routes and the defense of national sovereignty. Security in the Red Sea, he said, is a responsibility shared between Yemen and the international community, and he argued that threats moving across borders endanger not only Yemen but every state with a stake in the waterway.

Al-Alimi has led the eight-member Presidential Leadership Council since April 2022, when the body was formed to unify the anti-Houthi camp and assume the powers of the presidency. The council has since balanced military deterrence with openness to a negotiated settlement, a dual-track approach the president has repeatedly outlined to visiting diplomats. Meetings such as the farewell to Ambassador Khan serve that strategy, keeping Yemen’s case before governments whose weight can shape any eventual peace process.

The president devoted much of the conversation to the Houthi movement, which he described as a dangerous destabilizing factor in Yemen and the wider region. He warned that the group’s ambitions risk dragging the country into broader confrontations that serve Iran’s agenda, and he argued that the militia’s conduct threatens navigation through one of the world’s most heavily used maritime corridors, on which international trade and energy shipments depend.

Al-Alimi went further, citing what he described as documented evidence of Houthi coordination with terrorist organizations and armed groups operating out of the Horn of Africa. He accused the militia of involvement in arms smuggling and the transfer of military technology, activities he said could ignite additional unrest well beyond Yemen’s borders. The president also linked the group’s behavior to a resurgence of piracy and transnational crime in nearby waters, and he urged the international community to treat these threats as interconnected rather than as isolated problems. These are the government’s characterizations, contested by the Houthis, but they echo concerns raised in United Nations reporting on arms flows into Yemen.

The timing of the farewell gave the president’s warnings added weight. The meeting came amid a sharp escalation in the Red Sea, where the Houthis have declared a blockade of Saudi Arabia’s ports and warned shipping companies against calling at them, prompting loaded tankers to turn back mid-voyage. The confrontation has revived fears of a repeat of the 2023 to 2024 period, when Houthi attacks forced much of the world’s container traffic to abandon the Suez route for the long passage around southern Africa.

India has significant and direct interests in these developments. A large share of its trade with Europe transits the Red Sea and Suez Canal, and Indian refiners import crude that moves through the region’s chokepoints. The Indian Navy has maintained deployments in the Gulf of Aden and Arabian Sea in recent years, escorting merchant vessels and responding to piracy and drone incidents, and Indian warships carried out several high-profile rescues of seafarers during the earlier Red Sea crisis. New Delhi also has deep historical ties to Yemen: hundreds of thousands of Indian citizens once lived and worked there, and India’s Operation Rahat evacuated thousands of its nationals and citizens of other countries from the war zone in 2015.

Throughout the conflict, India has kept a deliberately balanced stance, calling for dialogue and a settlement that preserves Yemen’s sovereignty while maintaining working relations across the region. For Yemen’s government, that posture makes India a valuable interlocutor, a major power with credibility in multiple capitals and a practical interest in calm seas.

The backdrop remains bleak. Yemen’s civil war, now in its second decade, has produced one of the world’s gravest humanitarian crises, with the United Nations estimating that more than 18 million people need assistance amid mass displacement and recurring outbreaks of cholera and measles. The government argues that international support, both humanitarian and political, is essential to restoring functioning institutions and eventually reaching a durable peace.

As Ambassador Khan departs, both sides signaled that the relationship will continue to develop under his successor. For Aden, sustained engagement with powers like India offers a path to broader recognition of its security concerns; for New Delhi, a stable Yemen is a precondition for the safe passage of its commerce. In a region where the fates of shipping lanes and states are increasingly intertwined, the farewell in Riyadh doubled as a reminder that Red Sea security has become everyone’s business.