With its operations to crackdown pirates in the Gulf of Aden meeting with success this week, India today said it was considering augmenting naval assets to fight the threat to peaceful commercial shipping in the region.

"Yes, we are considering a proposal to increase the number of warships in Gulf of Aden to fight the pirates and to protect merchant ships flying the Indian flag," a top Navy officer said here.

India currently has a stealth guided missile frigate in the Gulf of Aden and the warship, INS Tabar, has successfully defended two merchant vessels that came under

pirate attack last week and went on the offensive for the first time on Wednesday to sink a mother ship of the sea brigands.

Navy officials also met Defence Minister A K Antony today to discuss the developments in the wake of INS Tabar destroying the pirates' mother ship.

The proposal to increase the number of warships and augment its naval assets came from the Shipping Ministry, which suggested four warships to be deployed there.

However, a decision was still pending on the proposal, as the Navy felt that it would be near impossible for a single nation to indefinitely deploy its warships and other assets, and also keep the supplies going to the on-board personnel, officers said.

Following this realisation, India has sought an international arrangement, preferably under the United Nations, to have a collaborative effort to ward off the menace in the sea brigand-infested international waters of the Arabian Sea.

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