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Japan, Australia and the UK said they have no plans to send ships to help secure the strait of Hormuz, the vital waterway that Iran has mostly blocked to oil tanker traffic, as Donald Trump ramps up pressure on allies to provide support.
The effective closure of the strait of Hormuz by Tehran, in retaliation for airstrikes by the US and Israel, has proved catastrophic for global energy and trade flows, causing the largest oil supply disruption in history and soaring global oil prices.
Trump on Sunday said his administration had already contacted seven countries for support, but declined to identify them. In an earlier social media post, he said that he hoped China, France, Japan, South Korea, Britain and others would participate.
“I’m demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because it is their territory,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One on the way from Florida to Washington on Sunday. “It’s the place from which they get their energy.”
Trump said this weekend that he expected many countries would send warships to allow shipping through the strait of Hormuz, a conduit for 20% of the world’s oil.
The president’s appeals have so far failed to produce any commitments. Speaking in parliament, prime minister Sanae Takaichi said Japan did not currently plan to dispatch naval vessels to escort ships in the Middle East and confirmed the US has yet to make a formal request for assistance.
“We have not made any decisions whatsoever about dispatching escort ships. We are continuing to examine what Japan can do independently and what can be done within the legal framework,” Takaichi said.
Sending its self-defence forces abroad is politically sensitive in officially pacifist Japan. Defence minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, said he has no plans to send warships to the Strait of Hormuz under the current volatile conditions. “What we can technically do and whether we should do it under the current circumstances is a different story,” he said.
Takayuki Kobayashi, the policy chief of Takaichi’s ruling Liberal Democratic Party, said Sunday the threshold for military involvement by Tokyo was “extremely high”.
Prolonged restrictions on tanker traffic in the strait of Hormuz could threaten Japan’s energy security. The world’s fifth-biggest economy imports 90% of its oil from the Middle East, 70% of which is shipped via the waterway. Takaichi is expected to discuss the war when she meets Trump in Washington later this week
On Monday, Japan began dipping into its oil reserves to alleviate supply concerns – the first time it has taken that step since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Japan is initially releasing 15 days’ worth of reserves held by the private sector, followed by a month’s supply of state-owned oil, according to the Kyodo news agency.
Australia has also pushed back on the request for naval assistance to secure shipping in the strait. “We won’t be sending a ship to the strait of Hormuz,” transport minister Catherine King told the national broadcaster. “We know how incredibly important that is but that’s not something we’ve been asked or we’re contributing to.”
The conservative Coalition opposition was also cautious about Australia’s involvement. Defence shadow minister, James Paterson said they would have to consider if it was in the national interest and “particularly whether we have the relevant naval vessels available that could safely do that mission”.
The UK said it was considering dispatching aerial minesweepers to help clear the vital waterway of mines in an attempt to allow the flow of oil exports to resume. However, officials said that sending ships, as requested over the weekend by the US president, could worsen the situation given the volatile nature of the war.
On Sunday, South Korea’s presidential office said it will “continue to communicate closely with the US regarding this matter and make a decision after careful review.”
In an interview with the Financial Times on Sunday, Trump ratcheted up pressure on European allies to help protect the strait, warning that Nato faces a “very bad” future if its members fail to come to Washington’s aid.
France has also rejected sending a warship or deploying any additional military forces to the strait. The foreign ministry officials emphasised that their current military posture is aimed at ensuring regional stability rather than escalating the conflict.
The US president told the FT he “may delay” a summit with China’s Xi Jinping as he amped up the pressure on Beijing, an Iran ally, to help secure the strait. It was reported last week that China was in talks with Tehran to allow safe oil and gas passage.
Trump said he expected China to help unblock the strait before he flies to Beijing. “I think China should help, too, because China gets 90% of its oil from the Straits [sic],” he said, suggesting that waiting until the summit would be too late. “We’d like to know before that.”
The blockade on the strait has sent the price of energy soaring globally. Oil prices continued to rise on Monday, hitting more than $104 per barrel in early trading.
With the conflict now in its third week, Trump on Sunday did not put a timeframe on concluding the war but said oil prices “are going to come tumbling down as soon as it’s over, and it’s going to be over pretty quick.“
US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told ABC that it would “certainly come to the end in the next few weeks – could be sooner than that”.
Trump has said Washington is in contact with Iran but expressed doubt that Tehran was prepared for serious negotiations to end the conflict. The US president previously that claimed Iran wants to negotiate but this was disputed by Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araqchi.
“We have never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiations,” Araqchi told CBS. “We are ready to defend ourselves for as long as it takes.“
Araqchi sought to project an image of strength and resilience despite waves of US and Israeli airstrikes that have killed a number of Iranian leaders, sunk much of the Islamic Republic’s navy and devastated its missile arsenal.
“It’s not a war of survival. We are stable and strong enough,” said Araqchi. “We don’t see any reason why we should talk with Americans, because we were talking with them when they decided to attack us, and that was for the second time.”
The impacts of the war continued to be felt in the Gulf, as Iran maintained its bombardment of the region with drones and missiles. Dubai airport, the busiest in the region, was forced to temporarily close operations again on Monday after a “drone-related incident” caused a fire nearby.
Agencies contributed to this report
