TOKYO/PALM BEACH, March 16 — United States (US) President Donald Trump's demands for a coalition to help reopen the Strait of Hormuz appeared to fall on deaf ears on Monday as allies Japan and Australia said they were not planning to send navy vessels to the Middle East to escort ships through the vital waterway.
With the US-Israeli war on Iran creating turmoil across the Middle East and shaking up global energy markets in its third week, he insisted that nations relying heavily on oil from the Gulf have a responsibility to protect the strait through which 20 per cent of the world's energy transits.
Markets in Asia reacted cautiously, with Brent crude rising more than one per cent above US$104.50 and regional share markets mostly weaker amid concerns about the risk to Middle East oil facilities and after Trump's request for allies to get more involved.
"I am demanding that these countries come in and protect their own territory because it is their territory. It is the place from which they get their energy," Trump told the media aboard Air Force One on the way from Florida to Washington on Sunday.
The President added that his administration has already contacted seven countries, but did not identify them. In a weekend social media post, he hoped that China, France, Japan, South Korea, the United Kingdom (UK), and others would participate.
On Monday, Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi, a staunch Trump supporter, said that her country, constrained by its war-renouncing constitution, has no plan to dispatch naval vessels to escort ships in the Middle East, from which it imports 95 per cent of its oil.
"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," she told Parliament.
Australia, another key Indo-Pacific security ally to the US that also relies heavily on fuels made with Middle Eastern crude, said it will not send naval ships to assist in reopening the strait either.
"We know how incredibly important that is, but that is not something that we have been asked or that we are contributing to," said Prime Minister Anthony Albanese's Cabinet member Catherine King in an interview with state broadcaster ABC.
Trump may delay Beijing visit without China support
Trump told The Financial Times on Sunday that he expected China to help unblock the strait before his scheduled meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing at the end of this month, and that he might postpone his trip if it did not provide assistance.
“I think China should help too because China gets 90 per cent of its oil from the Straits. We may delay," he said, in reference to his visit, if China did not offer support in the Gulf.
The Chinese Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.
Trump also 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.
Diplomats and officials say that European Union (EU) foreign ministers are expected to discuss on Monday bolstering a small naval mission in the Middle East, but are not expected to decide to extend its role to the choked-off Strait of Hormuz.
On Sunday, a Downing Street spokesman said that UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer discussed the need to reopen the Strait with Trump, and with Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, while South Korea has said it would carefully review Trump's request.
Global air travel remains severely disrupted due to the Iran war, which has closed or restricted key Middle Eastern hubs including Dubai, Doha, and Abu Dhabi, forcing airlines to cancel thousands of flights and stranding tens of thousands of passengers.
Supplies of jet fuel are also becoming a concern, with authorities in Vietnam warning the country's aviation industry to prepare for potential flight reductions from April after China and Thailand halted jet fuel exports due to the war in Iran.
Drones cause fire, disrupt traffic at Dubai Airport
The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change's Executive Secretary Simon Stiell said that the disruption to energy markets caused by the Iran war is an "abject lesson" in the risks of relying on fossil fuels.
"Fossil fuel dependency is ripping away national security and sovereignty, and replacing it with subservience and rising costs," he is expected to tell EU officials and government ministers at an event in Brussels on Monday.
Although some Iranian vessels have continued to pass and a few ships from other countries have successfully made the crossing, the passage has been effectively closed for most of the world's tanker traffic since the US and Israel attacked Iran on February 28.
Israel continued to launch strikes on Iran as well as Lebanon and Gaza, targeting militants from the Iran-backed Hezbollah and Hamas. On Monday, the Israeli military said that its troops had begun limited ground operations against positions in southern Lebanon held by Hezbollah.
Despite repeated claims from US authorities that they had destroyed Iran's military capabilities, drone attacks continued to threaten Gulf states on Monday.
Dubai authorities said they had contained a fire but temporarily suspended flights at the airport after a drone attack hit a fuel tank. Saudi Arabia intercepted 34 drones in its eastern region in one hour, state media said. No injuries were reported in either incident.
US officials responding to economic uncertainty over high oil prices predicted on Sunday that the war with Iran would end within weeks and that a drop in energy costs would follow, despite Iran's assertion that it remains "stable and strong" and ready to defend itself.
Trump, who threatened more strikes on Iran's main oil export hub Kharg Island over the weekend, has said previously that Iran wants to negotiate and that the US was talking to Iran, but Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi earlier on Sunday disputed that claim.
“We have never asked for a ceasefire, and we have never asked even for negotiations. We are ready to defend ourselves for as long as it takes," he told CBS' 'Face the Nation' programme.
