European Union leaders have rejected a request from United States President Donald Trump for military help to secure the Strait of Hormuz, as EU foreign ministers met in Brussels to discuss soaring oil prices caused by the US Israeli war on Iran .
Trump had urged the United Kingdom, China, France, Japan, South Korea and other NATO allies to send naval ships to protect shipping in the Strait of Hormuz, warning it would be very bad for NATO’s future if partners did not help secure the vital waterway .
US officials spent the weekend trying to build support for a new coalition to patrol the strait and said they hoped to announce it in the coming days, although it remains unclear which countries will join or when any operation would start .
Many close US allies are reluctant to send their forces into the heavily contested waters while an active war with Iran is ongoing, but Washington still hopes to secure at least initial political commitments, leaving details such as ship numbers and deployment dates for later .
At the Brussels meeting, EU foreign ministers pressed for more clarity on Washington’s wider war plans against Iran and on how and when the conflict might end, before deciding on any concrete support for securing the strait .
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said Berlin had no intention of joining combat operations in the conflict and stressed that NATO needed a clear explanation of when the United States and Israel would consider their military goals achieved .
He said the US and Israel must inform their allies about their objectives and signal when those goals have been met, after which Europe could move to the next phase of defining a long term security arrangement for the wider region with neighbouring states .
Wadephul added that NATO had not taken any decision to assume responsibility for security in the Strait of Hormuz, underlining that the alliance’s role was still undecided .
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesperson, Stefan Kornelius, stressed that the war with Iran was not a NATO operation and that the alliance exists to defend its own area, not to lead this particular conflict .
Kornelius said Berlin had taken note of Trump’s comments but pointed out that the United States did not consult Germany before launching the war, so the German government and NATO did not see it as their conflict to manage .
German Defence Minister Boris Pistorius questioned what effect a small number of European frigates could have in the Strait of Hormuz that the already powerful US Navy could not achieve on its own, insisting that Germany had not started this war and should not be drawn into it .
Greek government spokesman Pavlos Marinakis said Greece would not take part in any military operation in the Strait of Hormuz, while Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Tajani noted that Italy was not involved in any naval mission that could be expanded to the area .
Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said European allies wanted to understand Trump’s real strategic goals and overall plan before making decisions, while Polish Foreign Minister Radek Sikorski urged the Trump administration to present any formal request through NATO channels .
Sikorski said that if a request came through NATO, Poland would consider it very carefully out of respect and solidarity with the United States, but only within the framework of the alliance .
Danish Foreign Minister Lars Lokke Rasmussen took a slightly different tone, saying Europe should keep an open mind on helping to safeguard freedom of navigation in the strait, even though most European countries did not support the US Israeli decision to go to war with Iran .
He said Europe must deal with the world as it is, not as it wishes it to be, and argued that the EU should work out a plan that aims at reducing tensions while also protecting shipping .
The United Kingdom said it was working with partners on a joint plan to reopen the Strait of Hormuz and restore safe passage in the Middle East, while warning that the task would be difficult and complex .
Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Britain would not be dragged into a wider war but would cooperate with allies on a coordinated approach to the strait .
EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said EU leaders would focus on what member states were willing to contribute to efforts to reopen the waterway and stressed that the need to restore traffic through the Strait of Hormuz was urgent .
Kallas noted that the closure of the strait, which has pushed oil prices above 100 dollars per barrel, was indirectly helping Russia’s war on Ukraine by boosting Moscow’s energy income .
IEA ready to act again
The International Energy Agency said it was ready to release more emergency oil reserves if needed, describing the current situation as the largest supply disruption in the history of the global oil market .
The agency last week released a record 400 million barrels of oil in an effort to soften the impact of the blockade of the Strait of Hormuz on global supplies .
IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol said the volume of oil taken off the market was already higher than during any past disruption, including the 1973 oil crisis, though he noted that prices were now significantly lower than a week earlier .
He warned that emergency reserves were only a temporary measure while passage through the strait remains uncertain but added that the IEA still holds more than 1.4 billion barrels, giving it room to act again if required .
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