The European Union rejected President Donald Trump’s calls to help secure the Strait of Hormuz during the ongoing conflict with Iran, despite his recent warning about NATO’s future if it were to refuse his request.
Foreign ministers from the 27 EU countries met on Monday to discuss Trump’s call to action, and top diplomat Kaja Kallas said “Europe has no interest in an open-ended war,” according to Politico.
“This is not Europe’s war, but Europe’s interests are directly at stake,” she added.
There was a “clear wish” among other leaders to “strengthen” the EU’s naval presence in the Middle East, but as for “extending this mandate to cover the Strait of Hormuz,” the members weren’t convinced.
“Nobody wants to go actively in this war,” Kallas declared.
Trump spoke with the Financial Times on Monday and said NATO was headed for a “bad future” if it didn’t pitch in and help America secure the strait.
“It’s only appropriate that people who are the beneficiaries of the strait will help to make sure that nothing bad happens there,” Trump told the outlet, while highlighting that Europe and China are heavily dependent on oil from the Gulf, and the U.S. is not.
“If there’s no response or if it’s a negative response I think it will be very bad for the future of NATO,” he concluded.
Trump’s comments were reportedly made during an eight-minute phone call with the Financial Times, and “came a day after he appealed to China, France, Japan, South Korea and the UK to join a ‘team effort’ to open up the chokepoint through which a fifth of the world’s oil passes,” the article read.
“We have a thing called NATO,” the president added. “We’ve been very sweet. We didn’t have to help them with Ukraine. Ukraine is thousands of miles away from us… But we helped them. Now we’ll see if they help us. Because I’ve long said that we’ll be there for them but they won’t be there for us. And I’m not sure that they’d be there.”
Trump reiterated that Iran was being hit hard by American military forces and that he expects China to assist in unblocking the strait.
“I think China should help too because China gets 90 percent of its oil from the straits,” Trump said before adding that he might have to delay his upcoming China visit, given current conditions with Iran and domestic issues.
He did not give any further details on his travel timeline.
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