Japan and Australia 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 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.
“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.
She also said the US has yet to make a formal request for assistance.
Sending its self-defense forces abroad is politically sensitive in officially pacifist Japan, as many voters support the US-imposed, war-renouncing 1947 constitution.
She was echoed by Japan’s defence minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, who 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 was “extremely high” for Tokyo to send in its warships. Defense Minister
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 maintains it has not received any formal requests to send warships to 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.
“If [a request from the US] came, we’d have to very carefully consider it against our national interest and particularly whether we have the relevant naval vessels available that could safely do that mission,” defence shadow minister, James Paterson, told Channel Nine’s Today show.
Australia’s defence minister, Richard Marles, confirmed last week the US had asked Australia to assist the Gulf states.
“The thrust of their request and others has been fundamentally in respect of helping in the defence of the Gulf states,” he told ABC’s 7.30. “That is the request that meets our strategic intent here.”
The UK 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.
British prime minister Keir Starmer will announce tens of millions of pounds to support Britons feeling the impact of higher energy prices at a Downing Street press conference on Monday, where he will also emphasise the importance of de-escalating the crisis.
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.”
Trump is working to assemble a coalition of countries to reopen the strait and is hoping to announce it later this week, Axios reported on Sunday citing four unnamed sources.
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.
Trump also said Washington was in contact with Iran but expressed doubt that Tehran was prepared for serious negotiations to end the conflict.
The US president told the FT he “may delay” a summit with China’s Xi Jinping in Beijing planned for later this month as he grapples with the Iran war.
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 told the newspaper, suggesting that waiting until the summit would be too late. “We’d like to know before that.”
US officials responding to economic uncertainty over high oil prices predicted on Sunday that the war on 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 had threatened more strikes on Iran’s main oil export hub Kharg Island over the weekend and said he was not ready to reach a deal to end the war which has shut off the strait of Hormuz.
Oil prices continued to climb on Monday as Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 1.8% to $104.98 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.“
“This conflict will certainly come to the end in the next few weeks _ could be sooner than that,” US Energy Secretary Chris Wright told ABC’s “This Week” program.
Trump has said previously that Iran wants to negotiate, 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,” Araqchi told CBS’ “Face the Nation” program. “We are ready to defend ourselves for as long as it takes.“
Meanwhile, 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,” Araqchi told CBS. “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.“
Agencies contributed to this report
