Navigation through the Strait of Hormuz has been disrupted through 2026 amid confrontation between Iran and the United States, with tolls, escorted convoys and a naval blockade all featuring in the dispute. A memorandum of understanding on safe navigation routes signed on 18 June 2026 opened the way for a technical process, and Iran and Oman — the only two states whose coasts form the Strait — spent the following weeks working out where ships would actually sail. Baghaei said progress accelerated over the last three weeks of talks, which brought in Iran's foreign ministry alongside its defence, security and environment authorities together with Omani counterparts. Tehran has been careful to frame the outcome narrowly: it is about navigation, it is bilateral, and it leaves sovereignty untouched. Even so, Iran has kept the larger question open, insisting that commercial shipping cannot return to normal while the American blockade and what it terms illegal military activity continue.

About a fifth of the world's oil supply and roughly a quarter of seaborne oil trade passes through Hormuz, and there is no easy way around it: alternative pipelines and land corridors carry only a fraction of the volume. For India, which imports the overwhelming majority of its crude and a large share of its LPG and LNG, the Strait sits directly across its energy lifeline — Gulf cargoes from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Qatar and the UAE must pass through it to reach Indian refineries. The disruption of 2026 has already redrawn those routes, pushing India towards more American LPG and prompting bypass projects such as the Oman-Saudi land corridor. A working route map lowers the immediate risk premium, but Iran's linkage of full normalcy to US conduct means the chokepoint remains a live variable in India's energy security calculations.