US Secretary of State Marco Rubio urged his counterparts in Japan and South Korea to contribute to the security of the Strait of Hormuz.
In calls held on Monday night with Rubio, the Japanese and South Korean Foreign Ministers, Toshimitsu Motegi and Cho Hyun, highlighted the importance of ensuring safe navigation in that strategic passage, where tensions are affecting global fuel supplies, however they did not clarify the position of their respective governments regarding the support requested by Washington.
Last Sunday and Monday, US President Donald Trump appealed to several countries – including NATO allies, but also the countries that benefit most from the oil exported through the strait, namely China – to send military ships to the Strait of Hormuz to ensure the safety of the passage through which 20% of the world’s oil transits.
On Monday, Trump reiterated his request to Tokyo and Seoul to help keep the Strait of Hormuz open, recalling that the United States maintains troops in their respective territories as “protection”, and that the two countries depend mainly on oil imports from the Middle East.
Before these statements, Tokyo began by clarifying that it had not received any formal request for the deployment of military ships to the strait, but stressed, even so, that it did not intend to “order a maritime security operation”, according to statements by Defense Minister Shinjiro Koizumi in the Japanese Parliament.
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi also stressed on Monday that any maritime security operation would be “extremely difficult from a legal point of view”.
“As we have not yet been asked (formally), it is difficult to respond to an assumption. The Government of Japan is studying how to implement the necessary measures. We are analyzing how we can protect Japanese ships and their crews, as well as what can be done within the legal framework”however, said Takaichi at a session of the Japanese Parliament on Monday.
The deployment of the Japanese Self-Defense Forces abroad is a politically sensitive issue in an officially pacifist Japan where many voters remain attached to the 1947 Constitution, imposed by the United States and which implies the renunciation of war.
During the conversation with Rubio, the head of Japanese diplomacy now highlighted that navigation security in the region is “of vital importance to the international community, particularly from the point of view of energy security”.
Motegi further condemned “Iran’s actions, including attacks against civilian facilities and energy infrastructure in the Gulf countries, as well as activities that threaten the safety of navigation in the Strait of Hormuz”.
Seoul said it was “in close contact” with US authorities, adding that it would make “a careful decision” regarding the request.
The phone calls took place two days before Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi’s visit to the United States.
Motegi and Rubio agreed to “work closely to ensure that this occasion constitutes a new opportunity for [Tóquio e Washington] demonstrate the unbreakable strength of the alliance” between the two countries.
For his part, the South Korean Foreign Minister stated that “peace in the Middle East and safe and free navigation in the Strait of Hormuz are crucial to the security and economy of all nations”.
Cho offered condolences for the American casualties in the conflict and thanked the “active cooperation of the United States to ensure the safe return of South Korean citizens” who were in the region when the war began.
Lusa
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