LONDON — Britain will host a meeting of 35 nations in a bid to ease the Strait of Hormuz crisis “later this week,” British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said Wednesday.
Speaking in Downing Street, Starmer said Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper will bring together the nations behind last month’s joint statement urging safe passage through the waterway after Iranian forces de facto closed the vital shipping route.
The PM said the meeting “will assess all viable diplomatic and political measures that we can take to restore freedom of navigation, guarantee the safety of trapped ships and seafarers, and resume the movement of vital commodities.”
The U.K. will also convene military partners to examine how they can “marshal our capabilities and make the Strait accessible and safe after the fighting has stopped,” he said.
Countries behind the joint statement, which pledged to work on “appropriate efforts” to safeguard the major trade route, include the United Arab Emirates, the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands.