Bulgaria’s Prez Experiences ‘The India Effect’ on Social Media as Defence Experts Laud Elite MARCOS Commandos – News18

Bulgarian President Rumen Radev on Wednesday thanked his Indian counterpart Droupadi Murmu for the brave action of the country’s Navy in rescuing the hijacked Bulgarian Ship ‘Ruen’ and its crew. During a phone conversation, the two leaders agreed to boost the India-Bulgaria partnership.

The Indian Navy seized MV Ruen, a former Maltese-flagged bulk carrier, rescued 17 hostages and captured 35 armed pirates in the nearly 40-hour operation around 2,600 km from the Indian coast last week. Radev previously wrote a social media post expressing gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the Navy’s actions, which garnered significant attention on X. The post received over 2 million impressions, 25k likes, and 5.4k retweets, making it his most successful post on the platform, previously called Twitter.

Before the India post, the second most viewed post of Radev’s account received 57k views, 74 likes and 87 retweets. The majority of his posts received on average less than 100 likes and 10-15 retweets with impressions not exceeding 15k. This public shoutout for the heroic rescue operation comes as defence experts recognised that the dramatic rescue of the commercial ship from pirates off Somalia’s coast shows how India’s military has developed special forces capabilities on par with some of the world’s best.

“The success of the operation marks the Indian Navy as a top-class force in terms of training, command and control and other capabilities,” CNN quoted John Bradford, Council on Foreign Relations International Affairs fellow, as saying. “What marks this operation as impressive is how risk was minimised by using a coordinated force that includes the use of a warship, drones, fixed- and rotary-wing aircraft, and marine commandos,” Bradford said.

The Navy deployed warship INS Kolkata, long-endurance Sea Guardian drones, P-8I surveillance aircraft and airdropped elite MARCOS commandos from a C-17 plane to rescue the Bulgarian-owned ship. Experts fear the volatile security situation in the Red Sea due to attacks by Yemen-based Houthi rebels on commercial shipping may tie up international forces and provide a window for Somali pirates in the nearby Horn of Africa.

Somali pirates’ capture of the MV Ruen in December last year marked the first successful hijacking of a vessel off the strife-torn country’s coast since 2017. The vessel was hijacked by Somali pirates on December 14 last year and was reported to have sailed out as a pirate ship towards conducting acts of piracy on the high seas. But when the pirate-operated Ruen last week left Somali waters with the intent of committing acts of piracy on the high seas, the Indian Navy made moves to intercept it, according to a navy statement posted on X. Analyst Carl Schuster, a former US Navy captain, said the incident highlighted the professionalism of the Indian Navy and said India’s marine commando force, known as MARCOS, had learned from its foreign counterparts.

(With agency inputs)