In mid-April, leaders of France and Britain announced plans to assemble a multinational maritime security force in the Strait of Hormuz, seeking to ensure permanent freedom of navigation in a waterway that carries a fifth of the world’s oil. The initiative, announced at a Paris gathering of roughly 50 countries and international organizations, would operate independently of the U.S.-Israeli military campaign in Iran and would deploy “as soon as conditions allow,” according to Prime Minister Keir Starmer of Britain.
The announcement came as the U.S. Navy maintained a blockade of Iranian oil exports despite a temporary ceasefire that reopened the strait to commercial shipping. The European coalition reflects broader concern about global oil supplies and a European assertion of independent military capacity to address threats to global commerce.
President Emmanuel Macron said at the gathering: “we all demand the full, immediate and unconditional reopening of the Strait of Hormuz by all parties.”
That same day, U.S. President Donald Trump and Iran’s foreign minister, Abbas Araghchi, declared the strait open to commercial vessels. Araghchi said passage would remain “completely open” during a 10-day ceasefire in Lebanon, a move that sent oil prices plunging. But Trump said in a social media post that the U.S. Navy’s blockade of Iranian ships and ports would remain in force “UNTIL SUCH TIME AS OUR TRANSACTION WITH IRAN IS 100% COMPLETE.”
Starmer cautioned that the reopening must become “both lasting and a workable proposal.” The British prime minister, who faces political troubles at home, was greeted by Macron at the Elysee presidential palace. German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Premier Giorgia Meloni also attended in person. Representatives from Australia, Canada, South Korea, Ukraine, China, and India joined by video or in delegation form.
Starmer said the mission would be “strictly peaceful and defensive, as a mission to reassure commercial shipping and support mine clearance.” More than a dozen nations agreed to contribute military assets. Britain discussed using mine-hunting drones deployed from the ship RFA Lyme Bay. Germany said it could provide mine clearance and maritime intelligence capabilities but would need parliamentary support and a secure legal basis such as a U.N. Security Council resolution. Meloni expressed Italy’s “willingness to make its naval units available.”
France, which has deployed its nuclear-powered aircraft carrier to the region alongside a helicopter carrier and several frigates, will help lead the coalition. Britain has deployed the destroyer HMS Dragon to the eastern Mediterranean, highlighting what observers describe as the shrunken state of the Royal Navy.
Sidharth Kaushal, a research fellow in sea power at the Royal United Services Institute think tank, said mine-clearing and creating a warning system for maritime threats were more likely roles for the coalition than warships directly escorting commercial tankers through the strait. “You need huge numbers of vessels for that sort of thing, which nobody has,” he said.
Ellie Geranmayeh, deputy head of the Middle East and North Africa program at the European Council on Foreign Relations, said European countries could play a role in mine-clearing that the United States could not. “They would be a better party to do this than the United States, because once you have U.S. military doing this and lingering on Iranian shores, it creates a potential arena for Iran and the U.S. to have miscalculations and get back into a sort of military tension,” she said.
The operation partly reflects European attempts to assert independent military capacity. Trump has criticized American allies as “cowards” and said NATO “wasn’t there when we needed them.” In a social media post, Trump dismissed European offers of assistance. “Now that the Hormuz Strait situation is over, I received a call from NATO asking if we would need some help. I TOLD THEM TO STAY AWAY, UNLESS THEY JUST WANT TO LOAD UP THEIR SHIPS WITH OIL,” he wrote. “They were useless when needed, a Paper Tiger!”
Kaushal said European countries were trying “to demonstrate the ability to provide security in a way that’s distinct from, if not completely separate from, the U.S. and which also demonstrates a capacity for independent action.” How many states actually have spare military capacity to offer, he said, remains an open question.