Bulgarian President Rumen Radev has expressed his gratitude to the Indian Navy for successfully carrying out a rescue operation on the hijacked Bulgarian ship, MV Rouen. In a Social Media post yesterday, March 18, President Radev thanked the Indian Navy for rescuing its crew, including 7 Bulgarian citizens.

Earlier, Bulgaria’s Foreign Minister Mariya Gabriel held a conversation with the Indian Ambassador to Bulgaria, Sanjay Rana and thanked him for rescuing Bulgarian nationals. She said, all the sailors are in good health and efforts are currently being made for their timely return to Bulgaria.

The Rouen ship, which was carrying seven Bulgarians, nine Myanmarese and one Angolan citizen, was abducted by pirates in the Arabian Sea near the Yemeni island of Socotra in December last year. According to the Indian Navy, INS Kolkata intercepted the under-attack pirate ship which was sailing almost 2600 km from Indian shores and forced it to stop through calibrated actions. The operation, which lasted for the last 40 hours, was supported by the Indian warship INS Subhadra, High Altitude Long Endurance drones, P8I maritime patrol aircraft, and MARCOS PRAHARs.