Belgium announced on Monday it would join a coalition to ensure free passage through the Strait of Hormuz at the end of the Iran war.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe are working together with France and all other willing partners to achieve this strategic goal once conditions in the region will allow for it, such as a ceasefire,\u201d Belgian Defence Minister Theo Francken said. \u201cFreedom of navigation is essential for our security and economic stability.\u201d<\/p>\n
It appears to be the first public announcement from a state joining a French-led initiative to bring together dozens of nations in a \u201cday after\u201d naval force. This would provide convoy and other patrols to restore confidence to shipping on the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n
About 35 states took part last week in what French authorities described as a \u201ctechnical\u201d meeting but the list of participants was not made public.<\/p>\n
France has stressed the mission would only take place \u201conce the core of hostilities had sufficiently subsided\u201d. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis initiative is entirely separate from the approach taken by the United States of America and remains in a defensive posture,\u201d a representative for the chief of staff of the French armed forces said.<\/p>\n
About a fifth of the world\u2019s oil moves through the shipping lanes of the strait each day and Iran has allowed a handful of vessels, thought to use a so-called Tehran Tollbooth, passage in the past week.<\/p>\n
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer hosted a shipping, energy and insurance meeting in Downing Street on Monday.<\/p>\n
The senior leaders from the sectors met government officials and representatives from the UK\u2019s military \u201cto discuss the conflict in Iran and the impact on the Strait of Hormuz\u201d. It is believed Maj Gen Richard Cantrill, commander of UK Maritime Operations, talked through options in the Strait of Hormuz and the wider Middle East.<\/p>\n
Business is keen on a return to freedom of navigation to reduce costs and avoid shortages. <\/p>\n
Mr Starmer told executives there must be a \u201cjoint effort\u201d to tackle the impact of the war in Iran, saying \u201cthe government can\u2019t do it on its own\u201d.<\/p>\n
An online G7 meeting of energy and finance ministers, alongside central bank governors pledged to close the gap of oil output in the global market. A joint statement said that \u201cG7 central banks are strongly committed to maintaining price stability, and to ensuring the continued resilience of the financial system.\u201d Participants also reaffirmed \u201cthe importance of secure and uninterrupted trade flows\u201d.<\/p>\n
The IMF said on Monday that the war in the Middle East is having an uneven impact on global economies but \u201call roads\u201d lead to higher prices and slower economic growth. <\/p>\n
President Donald Trump threatened to destroy Iran\u2019s energy infrastructure if no deal was reached to end the war, making the Hormuz Strait immediately \u201copen for business\u201d. <\/p>\n
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky promised during a Middle East tour that his country’s expertise could be tapped open the Strait of Hormuz. <\/p>\n
\u201cWe discussed it in detail,\u201d he said. \u201cWe shared expertise on our Black Sea corridor and the way it operates.\u201d <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Belgium announced on Monday it would join a coalition to ensure free passage through the Strait of Hormuz…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":9546,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[7,2178,1730,2179],"class_list":{"0":"post-9545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-belgium","8":"tag-belgium","9":"tag-standard","10":"tag-story","11":"tag-uk-bureau"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@be\/116319690916084788","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9545\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9546"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/be\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}